Are there statistics on death and injury rates among children?
There are and they’re all over the place. One statistic I think stands out is that the percentage of civilians among total casualties is going up and up. If you look at a classic war like World War I, the overwhelming number of deaths were among combatants – soldiers killing soldiers. Now it’s estimated in these African wars that 50 to 60, maybe 70 percent of deaths are among civilians. Civilians are caught in between armies of soldiers who are not well paid or well fed, and therefore, are extremely vulnerable to coercion for food, for resources, for all kinds of things. The “civilianization” – for lack of another word – of casualties is one of the most striking trends of modern warfare. It means that women and children especially, who make up the majority of noncombatants, are ever greater at risk. This is a very modern phenomenon and particularly true in Africa. It’s quite striking that the violence in Kosovo just pales in comparison to what’s going on a half dozen African countries.
