Reuters
The UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa said that the Middle East and North Africa includes a record number of destitute youth and children victims of grave violence in the world.
The organization’s director, Ted Chaiban, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse, “There is a glimmer of hope, on condition of establishing new relations between the region’s governments and youth, ten years after the outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring revolutions.”
He believed that “after 2011, the lives and future of young people were threatened by the increase in conflicts and the decline in oil prices.” The result was overwhelming in a region that includes 124 million young people between the ages of ten and twenty-four, or 26% of the total population.
He added, “Today, 38 million children and adolescents need humanitarian aid in this region, which is the largest number in the world. The same applies to unemployment, which stands at 29 percent in North Africa and 25 percent in the Middle East. The unemployment rate is higher among women and is higher. 39 and 41 percent, respectively. ”
“For UNICEF, the Middle East and North Africa region represents more than 50 percent of the total amount of humanitarian aid appeals, which is a significant increase since 2011 due to the economic and political deterioration,” Shaiban emphasized.
“Since 2011, the region has witnessed a steady increase in violence against youth. Half of the 28,000 grave violations against youth recorded in the world in 2019 occurred in seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa region,” he said.
Source: “AFP”
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