Mapping Children on the Move within Africa continent has witnessed protracted armed conflicts that have adverse effects on children like the African Continent.138 Most of these conflicts are intra-state that lead to gross human rights violations.139 Conflicts force millions of people including children to move in pursuit of peace and safety primarily in different regions of their country, neighbouring states or continents. In Africa, as stated in section 3.1, by 2016, about 12.6 million people were internally displaced which is about a third of internally displaced people in the world. The year 2016 witnessed 3.9 million new internal displacements within the context of both violence and sudden-onset disasters in Africa.140 This can be equated to 10,500 people being displaced every day from their homes, which represents 8.5% increase on the 3.5 million new displacements recorded in 2015. About 37 of the 55 of African states were affected by internal displacement. UNHCR estimates that of the 5.4 million refugees in Africa, 53% are children.141 Indeed, it is estimated that generally 9 out of 10 refugees remain in their region.142 The highest number of child refugees originate ‘from Somalia, followed by South Sudan, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.’143 Conflict in these countries have become unending threat to the welfare of children both those that remain within state borders and those that flee.144 In 2017, Human Rights Watch noted that when the South Sudan civil war entered its fourth year millions of people had been internally displaced, and millions had sought refuge in neighbouring states.145 The number of people forced to leave their homes from the start of the conflict in 2013 is over 4 million, including about 1.9 million people internally displaced, with around 85% estimated to be children and women.146 According to the ACERWC, the conflict in South Sudan ‘can be characterised as nothing less than a war on the children of South Sudan.’147 The ACERWC noted that the impact of the war on children in the period between December 2013 and August 2014 ‘is greater than in the entire 21 year period during which the war was on going.’148 The conflict has resulted in blatant violations of the rights of the children affected and was an ‘assault to the very future of childhood in South Sudan.’149 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 ACERWC, Concept Note for the Commemoration of the Day of the African Child (DAC) 2016 p 12. D Witteler-Stiepelmann, Initial Addresses in C Fischer and R Vollmer (eds.), Migration and Displacement in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Security-Migration Nexus II, Bonn International Center for Conversion (2009). Norwegian Refugee Council, Africa Report on Internal Displacement 2017 P 15. UNHCR. 2017. More than One Million Children have Fled Escalating Violence in South Sudan. <http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2017/5/590c7cb64/million-children-fled-escalating-violence-south-sudan. html> accessed 15 March 2018. UNICEF. 2018. Children on the Move: Key Facts and Figures Data Brief. Last accessed: 27 June 2018. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Data-brief-children-on-the-move.pdf UNICEF Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children, September 2016 p 56. As above. Human Rights Watch, World Report 2018 <https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/ south-sudan> accessed 21 March 2018. ReliefWeb, 2018 South Sudan Humanitarian Needs Overview, https://reliefweb.int/report/southsudan/2018-south-sudan-humanitarian-needs-overview accessed on 9 November 2018. ACERWC, Press Statement following mission of the ACERWC on the situation of children in South Sudan, August 2014 p 2. As above. As above. 41