FILE: Children and their parents line up for food assistance in Upper Nile in South Sudan.

More than 10,000 children were killed or maimed due to conflict last year around the world, a UN report said.

In a report made public yesterday, the UN said there are shocking examples of attacks on schools and hospitals, recruitment of children, in some cases, of girls being used as human bombs.

According to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, there have been more than 20, 000 violations against children globally.FILE:

“This report shows that there have been 21,000 violations that were verified against children in 20 situations in conflicts around the world. We have more than 8,000 cases of recruitment and use, cases of killings and maiming, 900 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence, cases of attacks of attacks on schools and hospitals, and cases of abductions,” Virginia Gamba said.

Last year, the UN said the conflict in South Sudan remains has affected more than half the child population, as they fall victims of malnutrition, disease, forced recruitment, violence and the loss of schooling.

UNICEF noted that almost three million children in South Sudan are severely food insecure, while more than one million are acutely malnourished.

It further revealed that 2.4 million have been forced from their homes, and 2 million others are out of school.

The latest global report, according to Ms Gamba says the nature of conflict between 2016 and 2017 has greatly contributed to the suffering of children, including denying them access to humanitarian support.

“We also noted cases of denial of humanitarian access, and we are seeing that about 1/3 of these violations are committed by government, state or coalition forces, but over 15,000 of these violations are committed by armed groups,” she said.

In South Sudan, more than 19,000 children have been recruited in the ranks of armed forces and armed groups since 2013. But most of them have so far been demobilized through the support of UNICEF.

Virginia Gamba added that the UN together with governments, and armed groups have been able to demobilize several child soldiers last year. She said about 10, 000 children were released from armed conflict.

The report mainly highlighted violations against children in Africa, Middle East and in South America.

UNICEF says more than 2,300 South Sudanese children have been killed or injured since the conflict first erupted in December 2013, with hundreds of incidents of rape and sexual assault against children having been reported.