Children of War: From Gaza to Myanmar, How Wars of the 21st Century Are Targeting the Young

As the world observes the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, it does so under a pall thicker than in years past. War is no longer an occasional disruption, it is a permanent condition in the lives of more than 473 million children worldwide. In Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Myanmar, children are not only collateral damage. They are deliberate targets, displaced by design, and starved by strategy.

“By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict… This must not be the new normal,” warned United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The numbers back her alarm. In 2023 alone, the United Nations (UN) documented 32,990 grave violations against over 22,500 children—the highest toll since monitoring began. And 2025, just halfway through, is poised to eclipse it.

Gaza

In the Gaza Strip, the past year has been cataclysmic for children. Since war erupted in October 2023, the latest UN data shows that at least 50,000 children have been killed. Many remain under rubble, nameless and uncounted. “The numbers are appalling… Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else,” James Elder, UNICEF’s spokesperson in Geneva, said in a statement.

Over 1.9 million people are internally displaced—nearly the entire population of Gaza—with children comprising half. And yet, no refuge is safe. Schools, hospitals, and even designated shelters have been bombed. As of January, 370 schools had been destroyed.

UN data shows water production has collapsed to just 5% of normal. Infants are dying of dehydration, while the threat of famine escalates. Several thousand children have reportedly died from hunger and dehydration, conditions caused by the ongoing Israeli blockade.

Also Read: Children of War: Gaza's Lost Generation

Mental health is another front line. Even before the current war, UNICEF reported in 2024 that three-quarters of Gaza’s children needed psychological support. That figure has only grown. One of the war’s youngest victims, 11-year-old Yaqeem Hammad, known as Gaza’s youngest influencer, worked to uplift child victims—until he was killed.

In the words of Save the Children’s country director in Gaza: children are terrified, hurt, maimed, displaced… Others risk being killed by starvation and disease…...the mental harm... and the utter devastation of infrastructure... has decimated their futures.”

In Gaza, the concept of childhood has been dismantled. Survival has replaced schooling, and grief has become a daily rite.

Ukraine

Ukraine’s children have lived under bombardment since February 2022. Over 2,520 have been killed or injured—at least 600 by airstrikes, missiles, or shelling. “Children in Ukraine have endured almost 1,000 days of war… This is a war on children, and it must stop immediately,” said Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s director in Ukraine.

Even the act of sleeping is dangerous. Children take shelter in basements and corridors while missiles thunder overhead. One in five children has lost a close relative or friend. Almost a third report feeling persistently sad or hopeless. The symptoms of trauma are everywhere: nightmares, speech delays, tremors.

Displacement is massive and continuing. At the height of the 2022 offensive, 4.3 million children were displaced. Today, 3.7 million people remain internally displaced, and 6.86 million are refugees abroad—most of them women and children.

Poverty has surged. Two-thirds of Ukrainian children now live below the poverty line. Infrastructure has crumbled under the weight of repeated assaults: over 1,600 schools and 790 health facilities have been confirmed damaged or destroyed. In frontline areas, classrooms double as bunkers, and online learning is hampered by blackouts and dislocation.

UNICEF estimates the average student has lost two years of progress in reading and one in maths. “My classroom was on the second floor. There’s nothing left of it… I will probably never sit at a school desk again,” said 15-year-old David from Kharkiv in a UN report.

Catherine Russell has called attention to what this erosion of stability means long-term: children living with “death and destruction… constant in their lives.” Without recovery, Ukraine’s next generation will be one raised on fear.

Sudan

Since conflict reignited in Sudan in April 2023, over 4 million children have fled their homes. Some 2.5 million remain internally displaced. Around 1 million have sought refuge in Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan. “Since the conflict began, Sudan has emerged as the globe’s most extensive internal displacement crisis,” said Arif Noor, Save the Children’s director in Sudan.

Within the first 11 days of fighting, 190 children were killed and 1,700 were injured. By year’s end, at least 480 had been confirmed killed and 764 maimed. Countless others have perished in inaccessible regions.

Homes, schools, and hospitals have been shelled or turned into combat zones. Disease now stalks the camps: cholera, malaria, and diarrhoea spread rapidly where sanitation fails. In Darfur, children are dying of dehydration in makeshift tents.

Sudan’s hunger crisis is staggering. Close to 4 million children under five are expected to suffer acute malnutrition this year. Of them, 730,000 face the risk of death without treatment. Humanitarian access is blocked, food convoys are looted, and health facilities are bombed or abandoned. “Blocking aid starves civilians… Blocking aid kills,” said UN relief chief Martin Griffiths.

The war has effectively shut down education. Over 10,400 schools are closed, with many used as shelters or seized by armed factions. An estimated 19 million children are out of school. Sudan, once a fragile education system, now teeters on becoming the worst global education crisis.

Also Read: Children of War: The Heaviest Coffins

“Children have been exposed to the horrors of war for nearly half a year,” said UNICEF’s Mandeep O’Brien. “Now, forced away from their classrooms… they are at risk of falling into a void that will threaten the future of an entire generation.”

The damage goes beyond statistics. Children wet their beds. They scream in their sleep. They refuse to speak. They cling to their mothers with vacant eyes. One in two children has lived within five kilometres of active frontlines.

Myanmar

In Myanmar, war rages largely out of sight. Since the 2021 military coup, more than 3.2 million people have been internally displaced. At least 40% are children.

The Myanmar junta has been accused of widespread atrocities: killing, torture, sexual violence, and forced recruitment. At least 460 children have died since the coup began. In 2024 alone, 750 more were killed or injured, many by airstrikes and landmines. Myanmar is now considered the world’s most mine-contaminated country for children.

Children have been bombed in schools, detained arbitrarily, used as human shields, and forced into militias. “The military is responsible for widespread killings, detention, torture, and forced displacement of children… attacks on education,” said Human Rights Myanmar.

Over 55% of children live in poverty. Hospitals have been attacked or abandoned, vaccinations have stalled, and disease spreads unchecked. Over 1 million children have missed basic immunisations.

More than 300,000 children were affected by Cyclone Mocha in 2024—many in already fragile conflict zones. Without access to aid, these children face dual catastrophes of violence and disaster.

Education has collapsed. Roughly one-third of Myanmar’s children have no access to learning. Some parents refuse to send them to junta-run schools; others simply have no school to go to. Five million children are estimated to be out of school.

UNICEF has warned of a “lost generation” scenario. The trauma, loss of learning, and malnutrition will cast a long shadow. “An entire generation of Myanmar children teeters on the brink,” the organisation concluded.

Despite heroic efforts by local volunteers, who run underground classrooms and field clinics, only 25% other required humanitarian aid for Myanmar was funded in 2024.

The war may be hidden, but its impact on children is nothing short of catastrophic.

No Safe Childhood

Across these four war-torn regions – Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Myanmar – the experiences of children are wrenchingly similar. They are innocents caught in the crossfire of adult wars, yet they suffer outsized consequences: losing their lives, families, homes, health, and dreams. 2025 has already seen an alarming rise in these young victims of aggression.

Humanitarian agencies say the international community must not look away. On this International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, their message is one of urgency and hope: that the world can still choose to protect the most vulnerable. “A child growing up in a conflict zone is far more likely to be out of school, malnourished, or forced from their home, too often repeatedly, compared to a child living in peace,” UNICEF’s Catherine Russell notes.

She and other advocates insist that warring parties be held accountable for violations of children’s rights, and that aid be allowed to reach those in need. The stories emerging from Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Myanmar are a stark reminder that every statistic is a shattered childhood. Ensuring those children have a future, with education, security, and emotional healing, will require a concerted global effort for peace and protection. As Russell put it simply, “We cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world’s unchecked wars.”