A South Sudanese boy has lost his arm, working at a factory in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Photos of the 14 years old boy have widely been circulated on social media.
The unnamed boy is seen seated in a wheelchair, holding up the bandaged stump as he waits for medical attention at a hospital in Cairo.
According to Zechariah James – a South Sudanese who took and shared the images – the boy’s right arm was chopped off by a marble machine while working to earn school fees.
The UNHCR reports that there are thousands of South Sudanese families in Egypt, most of whom fled the first civil war in the 80s and 90s. To support themselves, they reportedly engage in unskilled labors popularly known as “Osheen”.
According to UNICEF, Egypt has the worst forms of child labor concentrated in domestic work, quarrying limestone, forced begging, and commercial sexual exploitation as a result of human trafficking.
Child Labor is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.