Boys stand behind barbed wire that forms a protective barrier around a camp for some 9,000 displaced people in the town of Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The camp is protected by peacekeepers from the United Nations.
The country has been at the center of what has been termed Africa's world war. This has left it in the grip of a humanitarian crisis. The five-year conflict has seen government forces pitted against rebels.
UNICEF supports children in conflict by providing safe shelter, water and food.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2003-0350/ROGER LEMOYNE
A girl, who fell and struck her head in her home, awaits medical examination at Dar El Shifa Hospital in Aleppo, Syria.
The city has been a site of prolonged fighting which has severely constricted access to healthcare and other basic services.
Children are the most vulnerable in times of conflict and UNICEF works to provide assistance to those affected through medical supplies, food and safe water.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-1291/ALESSIO ROMENZI
This 14-year-old boy is a former child soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is at the Cajed transit centre, where he'll be helped to reunite with his family.
Tens of thousands of children worldwide are exposed to tremendous violence. They are deprived of their rights, often with severe physical and emotional consequences.
UNICEF works to provide care for those affected by conflict both physically and psychologically. Since the mid-1980s, UNICEF and its partners have advocated for, and secured the release of, children from armed forces in conflict-affected countries across the globe.
© UNICEF/DRCA2010-00019/JILL CONNELLY
Twelve-year-old Fadi walks past ruined houses which were destroyed by airstrikes, in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-1583/IYAD EL BABA
A woman of the Murle tribe gives deworming medication to her son in South Sudan. They were displaced by inter-ethnic violence. UNICEF assists in a supplementary feeding programme, run by the Swiss NGO Medair, which is providing nutritional aid to 2,000 conflict-affected children in the region.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0134/BRIAN SOKOL
In the Central African Republic, children who live on the streets play "les dames", a game similar to checkers, at a centre run by the Fondation Voix du Coeur (FVC) in the capital city of Bangui.
Conflict in the CAR continues to worsen living conditions in what is already one of the world’s poorest countries.
FVC is a local organisation which receives support from UNICEF. The centre provides shelter, healthcare, education, sport activities and family and social reintegration for children living on the streets or who are otherwise vulnerable.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-1171/BRIAN SOKOL
Mazen, 16, dropped out of school to help support his family. He and his friends collect gravel, plastic and scrap metal amid the rubble from destroyed homes in the Israeli imposed access restricted zone.
Since 2009, his mother has been unable to access the plot of land she owns because it is located in the buffer zone. "I have lost my only means of livelihood, I cannot afford to buy milk or juice for my children. All I can do is tell him to be careful and run away the minute he hears shooting."
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1561/IYAD EL BABA
Clutching a notebook, a girl passes an armed man on a street in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia – a country gripped by famine and unrelenting conflict.
Most vulnerable are girls and women for whom the crisis only worsens gender inequalities. Some 98 per cent of women aged between 15–49 years have endured female genital mutilation. UNICEF is supporting preventive initiatives while aiding already affected girls and women.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0713/KATE HOLT
