By Fatih
GENEVA
The United Nations Children's Fund on Tuesday appealed for $3.3 billion in funding to help 48 million children across almost 50 countries.
Forty percent of the appeal is to help children ensnared in the Syrian refugee crisis.
UNICEF’s 2017 Humanitarian Action for Children report projected an estimated 7.5 million children will be severely malnourished in 2017 across the majority of appeal countries.
The biggest individual appeal -- $354 million -- is for Syrian children. UNICEF also wants about $1 billion for Syrian refugees in general and other affected populations in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
UNICEF appealed for nearly $2 billion in aid for children in the Middle East region, including $161 million for Iraq, $236 million for Yemen and $24 million for Palestine.
Refugee, migrant crisis in Europe
Noting that some 350,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe last year, UNICEF said: "Close to half of all arrivals by sea to Greece and Italy were children, predominately from Syria and Afghanistan.
“Many of these children have experienced violence, abuse or exploitation."
According to Tuesday’s report, countries neighboring Syria are hosting more than 4.8 million registered Syrian refugees, including more than 2.2 million children.
The escalating conflict in Iraq has also left an estimated 11 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. More than three million people are displaced, including at least 1.4 million children, UNICEF said.
