One in five children grow up within range of a war zone

The numbers are staggering, but the reality behind them is harder still. More than 20 percent of children worldwide are growing up within 50 kilometres of a war zone. Global military spending has risen by 41 percent in under a decade. And in Sudan alone, 825,000 children under five are facing severe acute malnutrition right now, in 2026.

But this is not just a story about statistics. It is a story about what happens to a child when the road to school becomes too dangerous to walk. When the money that could fund a clinic is spent on weapons instead. When violence is not something that happens nearby, but something that is deliberately directed at children themselves.

Who bears the heaviest cost of armed conflict, and why? What does international law actually require of governments, and why are those obligations being ignored? And what does it mean for a generation of children to grow up in conditions the world has, repeatedly, promised to prevent?

Our new longread goes into all of it.