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Armed conflicts affected around 630 million women and children – over 8 percent of the world's population – in 2017, depriving them of access to essential healthcare and basic amenities, said a series of studies published in The Lancet.
Nearly 10 percent of women and 16 percent of children worldwide were either forcibly displaced or are living dangerously close, within 50 kilometers, of conflict zones. A third of these affected sections are in Pakistan, Nigeria and India.
Born within the proximity of armed conflict, more than 10 million children under five years of age are estimated to have died from the indirect consequences of fighting across Africa, Asia and the Americas between 1995 and 2015. Between 6.7 million to 7.5 million infants suffered the same fate.
"But the reality could be much worse. Insecurity and insufficient resources mean data are often scarce and of poor quality," said Hala Ghattas, co-author of the series.
The conflict has also taken a heavy toll on women of childbearing age in Africa, living near the high-intensity conflict zones, as they are three times more likely to die than women in peaceful areas. And the risk of death among infants gets higher by more than 25 percent, the study said.
Since 2000, there has been a steady rise in the number of women and children affected by the warring factions. The increase in population, conflicts, use of explosive and chemical weapons in urban areas and displacement has worsened the situation.
Researchers assessed health interventions for women and children living in 10 conflict-affected countries: Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. They also looked at the geographical, political and economic conditions prevailing in these countries.
"Today, more than half of the world's women and children are living in countries experiencing active conflict. The international community cannot continue to ignore their plight," said Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, who led The Lancet series on Women's and Children's Health in Conflict Settings.
"It's time for a radical rethink of the global response that confronts challenges to insecurity, access, politics, coordination and the logistics of delivering high-priority interventions to women and children in politically unstable and insecure settings."
Health interventions, including antenatal care, emergency obstetric care, vaccination and infant and young child feeding, reproductive, newborn and adolescent health services, is extremely limited in conflict-torn areas, wrote the study.
Researchers also highlighted humanitarian agencies and national authorities facing a wide variety of barriers to delivery, from limited funding and shortages of skilled healthcare workers to insecurity and mistrust due to the politicization of aid behind women and children's plight.
"It is imperative that the world make more concerted efforts to reduce the risk of conflict, but until that happens, improving the delivery of health and nutrition services for women, children and adolescents affected by conflict remains an ethical and moral responsibility," said Neha Singh, co-author of the series.
Helen Clark, chair of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn Child Health and former prime minister of New Zealand, who was not involved in the study in a comment said, "The rights and needs of women, children and adolescents must to be placed at the center of all humanitarian, development and peace-building efforts, in line with the concept of centrality of protection.
Doing this isn't the responsibility of any one sector or stakeholder group, and all actors need collectively to agree on and demand greater alignment, investment and political attention for women, children and adolescents who are trapped in conflict zones."
(Cover: Girls who survived what activists said was a ground-to-ground missile attack by forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, hold hands at Aleppo's Bab al-Hadeed district April 7, 2015. /Reuters)
