The terror of growing up during war is a reality for millions of children worldwide. Marwa, an activist who advocates for vulnerable communities, recently spoke at an event on protecting children in urban warfare organized by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She described her experience of living under air raids, never going to school without feeling anxiety, and never playing outside without the watchful eyes of her concerned mother. Marwa’s story is just one of many, as an estimated one out of six children worldwide must navigate war as part of their lives.
The ICRC recently published a report that addresses what it calls a gap in knowledge about the child-specific harms caused in increasingly urbanized conflicts. The report draws on existing literature in addition to dozens of interviews with experts and witnesses. It is the first holistic study dedicated specifically to children’s experience of urban warfare. The report is necessary because children need to be assessed differently in war scenarios. They are less able than adults to accurately assess risks, are more vulnerable due to their physiology, will experience reverberating effects on their health in case essential services like water are disrupted, and will undergo profound mental health changes that impact the rest of their lives.
The ICRC report also details how economic downturns caused by urban warfare can cause children and their families to adopt harmful survival strategies, such as child labor, early marriages, or relying on their children for things like evading checkpoints or picking their way through rubble. Children’s experiences of urban warfare also vary based on criteria such as sex, age, disabilities, and migration status. Children could find their education disrupted in many ways, could be separated from their families in minutes, face displacement, or be subject to detention or even recruitment into armed groups.
Another urban war has erupted since mid-April in Sudan, where two generals are fighting for control of the country. The deadly power struggle has triggered a significant humanitarian crisis with more than 1.2 million people displaced internally and another 400,000 fleeing into neighboring states. One of those states is Chad, Sudan’s western neighbor, which has seen tens of thousands of refugees – many of them children – pour over its border on foot. Witnessing the situation firsthand in Adre, Chad, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi described how he saw a mother fleeing war, carrying a boy who did not look older than one but was suffering from developmental issues and severe body contortions.
Children in Sudan and their families are facing a “generational uprooting” that is happening with increasing frequency and intensity compared with the past few decades and are being traumatized over and over again. Children have lost limbs, witnessed their fathers beaten, their mothers sexually assaulted, and felt certain they would die at checkpoints. That is not to mention the lack of clothing, food, and water and exposure to diseases. When the kids arrive, they are completely shell-shocked, constantly crying.
Aside from constantly exposing children to bodily harm, urban conflicts could severely impact their mental health. Children in these settings have regularly reported insomnia, stress, anxiety, panic attacks, grief, bedwetting, fear of loud sounds, and nightmares. A 2013 study about the civil war in Syria found that 84 percent of adults and nearly all children considered the bombing and shelling as the main cause of psychological stress in children’s lives. A 2022 study in Gaza found that children lived in a “perpetual state of fear, worry, sadness and grief” and that more than half of Gaza’s children have thought about suicide while three out of five reported practicing self-harm.
To improve the situation, the ICRC sets out recommendations for states, fighting groups, and humanitarian actors and for data collection and analysis concerning children in urban warfare settings. It calls on states to put in place robust domestic legal frameworks and to implement higher standards as a matter of policy while drawing up recommendations for evacuations and for health and educational services and in connection with the detention of children. It says armed actors should specifically address the protection of children in their urban warfare doctrine while calling on humanitarian actors to develop a fuller understanding of the risks and strengthen their capabilities in preventing and reducing harm to children.
In conclusion, the ICRC report highlights the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the child-specific harms caused in increasingly urbanized conflicts. Children are less able than adults to accurately assess risks, are more vulnerable due to their physiology, will experience reverberating effects on their health in case essential services like water are disrupted, and will undergo profound mental health changes that impact the rest of their lives. The report calls on states, fighting groups, and humanitarian actors to take action to protect children in urban warfare settings. By doing so, we can help better respond to children’s needs in these complex environments and ensure that they are not left behind.