An astonishing 60 million children who need help to survive this year — half of all the children in need globally — live in just eight countries.
An estimated total of 60,237,000 children will need humanitarian assistance in Yemen, Ethiopia, DRC, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, and Nigeria. The figure based on info from national HRP’s, or was calculated by extrapolating the under-18 populations in the countries for which detailed national HRP data was not yet available, using UN data on the total number of people in need.COVID-19 has put decades of progress for the world’s most vulnerable children at risk. Weak health systems were impacted as children saw their parents or teachers being taken away to hospitals with the virus. Children went hungry as families were plunged into poverty because breadwinners lost their income.
The education of more than 300 million pupils is still affected by the pandemic, as many schools had to close to curb the virus, increasing the risk of child abuse, exploitation, child marriage, or children dropping out of school permanently.
According to the UN, more than 235 million people—an estimated half of them children—will need some form of humanitarian assistance this year, up from 170 million in 2020. That’s a dramatic 40 percent increase in less than a year.
Of the roughly 117.7 million children who need life-saving support in 2021, more than half (60 million) live in just eight countries, with Yemen, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo accounting for more than 10 million children each.
CHILDREN IN NEED
Yemen 10,935,000
DRC 10,192,000
Ethiopia 10,011,000
Afghanistan 9,700,000
Sudan 6,164,000
Syria 4,680,000
Pakistan 4,305,000
Nigeria 4,250,000
TOTAL 60,237,000
Source: Save the children
