72m Children In Africa Are Forced Into Child Labour – WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says no fewer than 72 million children in Africa are forced into child labour.

The UN’s health agency said in its official twitter account @WHOAFRO that the COVID-19 crisis had further put many more children at risk of child labour.

“Child labour is detrimental to the health and development of children.
Meanwhile, the UN in a statement, said huge gains made toward ending child labour over the last 20 years, risk being reversed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UN made the observation in a statement issued to commemorate the World Day Against Child Labour, marked annually on June 12.

It, however, appealed to governments to continue to invest in measures that have helped reduce the number of youngsters working, by 94 million since 2000.

Existing global estimates indicate that 152 million children are being put to work.

But the figure is due to be updated next year, once the wider impact of coronavirus lockdown precautions become clearer.

Research Shows That 43% of Nigerian children Are engaged in worst form of child labour

In another story, Sequel to the high incidence of child labour in the mining and agricultural sector, the International Labour Organization has set up a framework to eliminate child labour in Nigeria, Mali, Malawi, Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, and Uganda.

This was part of the Acceleration of Action in the Elimination of Child Labour In Supply Chains In Africa project which covers the six African countries.

Speaking at a two-day workshop on ACCEL Africa financed by Netherlands, in Abuja on Friday, ILO Country Director, Dennis Zulu, said that while Nigeria had ratified and domesticated several United Nations and ILO Conventions, statistics indicate that about 43 per cent of Nigerian children aged between five to 10 years were involved in child labour.