UN agencies say over 500 Iraqi children killed by explosive ordnance in 5 years

Unexploded and abandoned explosive ordnance has killed 519 children in Iraq, mainly boys, over the past five years, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said.

"For the last 5 years, 519 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq due to explosive ordnance. More than 80 per cent of children affected are boys. Boys are disproportionately impacted due to incidents of child labour, such as grazing animals or collecting scrap metal to sell," UNICEF and UNMAS said in a joint statement released on Monday.

Despite Iraq proclaiming victory over the Islamic State (IS, a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia) in 2017, the Iraqi army, supported by people's militia and the international coalition, continued fighting the remaining IS sleeper cells. (ANI/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor