Indirect child casualties of conflict far outnumber direct combatant deaths in Africa

A study’s comprehensive analysis reveals the indirect child casualties due to warfare in Africa; their deaths far outweigh direct warfare deaths.

By Beth Duff-Brown

Five million children aged 5 and under were killed in the last two decades due to the indirect consequences of warfare in Africa. That number is three times greater than the number of combatants who died in armed conflict across the continent.

The numbers are anything but miniscule: 3.1 to 3.5 million infants born within 30 miles of armed conflict died from indirect consequences of battle zones between 1995 and 2005. That number jumps to 5 million deaths of children under 5 in those same conflicts.

On the entire continent, the authors wrote, the number of infant deaths related to conflict from 1995 to 2015 were more than three times the number of direct deaths from armed conflict. Further, they demonstrated that babies born within 30 miles of an armed conflict face an increase of 7.7 percent in the risk of dying before age 1.

The results suggest efforts to reduce conflict could lead to large health benefits for children.

“However, this work shows that the relationship between conflict and child mortality is stronger than previously thought and children in conflict zones remain at risk for many years after the conflict ends.”

He notes that nearly 7 percent of child deaths in Africa are related to conflict and reiterated the grim fact that child deaths greatly outnumber direct combatant deaths.

“We hope our findings lead to enhanced efforts to reach children in conflict zones with humanitarian interventions,” Wagner said. “But we need more research that studies the reasons for why children in conflict zones have worse outcomes in order to effectively intervene.”

Photo by Getty Images

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