War stops 13 million going to school in Middle East, N.Africa
Conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa are preventing more than 13 million children from attending school, leaving their hopes and futures shattered, the United Nations Children's Fund said in a report issued on Thursday.
The UNICEF report "Education Under Fire" looked at the impact of violence on schoolchildren in nine territories, including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya where a generation is growing up outside of the education system.
"It's no coincidence in that what we see in terms of our TV pictures, the tragic pictures of people crossing on boats to Greece and Italy, very much comes back to the Syrian conflict and (to) the Iraqi conflict to a lesser extent," UNICEF regional director Peter Salama said.
