2014 devastating year for children: Unicef

The year 2014 has been "devastating" for children, as millions of them were exposed to armed conflicts, Ebola outbreak and torture, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said Monday.

According to the Unicef, as many as 15 million children are caught up in violent conflicts in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, the Palestinian territories, Syria and Ukraine, including those internally displaced or living as refugees.

"Children have been killed while studying in the classroom and while sleeping in their beds; they have been orphaned, kidnapped, tortured, recruited, raped and even sold as slaves. Never in recent memory have so many children been subjected to such unspeakable brutality," Xinhua quoted Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake as saying in a statement.

The Unicef estimated 230 million children currently live in countries and areas affected by armed conflicts worldwide.

For example, in the Central African Republic, 2.3 million children are affected by the conflict, up to 10,000 children are believed to have been recruited by armed groups over the last year, and more than 430 children have been killed and maimed, three times as many as in 2013.

Unicef said the number of crises in 2014 meant that many were quickly forgotten. Protracted crises in countries like Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, continued to claim more young lives and futures.

The UN children's agency also said this year has also posed significant new threats to children's health and well-being, most notably the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, which has left thousands of children orphaned and an estimated five million out of school.