At least 27 children were killed and 136 were wounded in ongoing fighting in Afghanistan’s three provinces--Kandahar, Khost, and Paktia--in the last 72 hours, a United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, said on Monday in a statement and added it was "shocked by the rapid escalation of grave violations against children" in the war-torn country.

Kandahar, a key southern province witnessing heavy fighting between the Taliban and the government, accounts for most killings of children: 20 children were killed and 130 were wounded. Two children were killed and three more were wounded in Khost, a northeastern province. And, five children were killed and three more were wounded in Paktia in the last 72 hours.

“These are not numbers. Each one of these deaths and each case of physical suffering is a personal tragedy,” Hervé Ludovic De Lys, the UNICEF envoy in Afghanistan, said in a statement. 

“These children are much loved and longed-for daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, cousins and friends. All of them are children whose right to protection, under international humanitarian law, has been disregarded by warring parties.”

Intense fighting in urban areas has dramatically escalated civilian casualties, including those of children. Thousands of people have been displaced as a result of this fighting, their shops and markets have been burnt. 

In capital Kabul, home to almost 7 million people, the number of internally displaced people from other provinces, has been growing and requiring urgent humanitarian assistance. The UN agency also said that it was also "deeply concerned about reports that children are, increasingly, being recruited into the conflict by armed groups," and termed the situation "appalling." 

Last week, Deborah Lyons, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, during the UNSC meeting on Afghanistan, warned, saying the country is standing at a “dangerous turning point.”

“Ahead lies either a genuine peace negotiation or a tragically intertwined set of crises: an increasingly brutal conflict combined with an acute humanitarian situation and multiplying human rights abuses,” she said in the meet. She also reminded the international community that humanitarian needs are just 30 percent funded.

(SAM)