UN says children denied access to aid in world's war zones

Displaced Sudanese children stand in the courtyard of a school where their families took refuge near Gadaref, Sudan, on March 6, 2024.[AFP]

Children are being denied access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance in conflict zones around the world in a blatant disregard for international law, a senior U.N. official said Wednesday.

"Let me be very clear: The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain key provisions requiring the facilitation of humanitarian relief to children in need," Virginia Gamba, the U.N. envoy on children and armed conflict, told a meeting of the Security Council.