Saturday, December 08, 2007
UNICEF said children caught up in the Somali war were being traumatized and denied access to proper treatment.
"UNICEF is deeply concerned and distressed that checkpoints and roadblocks are posing an additional challenge to wounded or sick children and women as they try to get medical assistance," said UNICEF Representative Christian Balslev-Olesen.
Balslev-Olesen appealed to all parties in the current Mogadishu conflict to help to reduce the impact and trauma of war on the children and women in the Somali capital, by granting safe access across checkpoints to those in need of medical care.
According to reliable reports from the capital, children, adolescents, pregnant women and mothers - some of them injured by shells or stray bullets - are being stopped and turned back at checkpoints, particularly at night, while attempting to reach health posts.
"To be denied access to basic health services in such critical circumstances greatly compounds the trauma of the children and women, who are amongst those most heavily affected by the current conflict: fighting that has left many children killed, maimed, displaced and orphaned," said Balslev-Olesen .
According to UNICEF, those who have been turned back at checkpoints include women in need of antenatal and post-natal care and many children requiring urgent medical treatment for conditions such as diarrhoea.
Similarly, medical practitioners, doctors and nurses face the same obstacle as they attempt to reach their workplaces to help those in need.
Checkpoints are also preventing children from accessing education at a time when school could provide shelter and a safe space for their survival and protection.
Some 80% of Mogadishu schools are now closed due to the capital`s dangerous environment, UNICEF said.
Source: Angola Press, Dec 08, 2007