Doctors and rights activists unveiled on Thursday the world's first field manual for the treatment of child casualties from explosions, which they say cause almost three-quarters of juvenile deaths and injuries in war zones. The guide was put together by British aid agency Save the Children and experts at Imperial College London at the request of Syrian medics working in the bloody eight-year civil war.
"It starts from the point when something goes 'bang' and a child is exposed to that explosion," former British army surgeon Paul Reavley, one of the manual's authors, told AFP. "It then follows the child on a care pathway and focuses on the key differences of children compared to adults," Reavley said ahead of a function at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Save the Children said suicide bombs, landmines, grenades, unexploded ordnance, air strikes and other forms of explosives "account for 72 percent of all child deaths and injuries across the world's deadliest war zones".
In Syria the figure was 83 percent. The agency used United Nations figures from what it said were the five deadliest conflicts for children, in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The first batch of some 500 field manuals is expected to be sent to Syria soon, Save the Children confirmed.
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