While adults can endure long periods of hardship, children are less likely to survive shortages of supplies and services. Essentially, their needs are no longer met. Thousands of children are killed every year as a result of fighting, from knife wounds, bullets, bombs and landmines, but many more die from malnutrition and disease caused or increased by war. The shortage of food supplies, the destruction of food crops, the separation of families, the movement of people into camps, the destruction of health services and water and sanitation systems all take a heavy toll on children. Many die as a result of less food intake, while others become unable to resist common childhood diseases and infections because they are so weak, hungry, and unclean.
Children experience a great deal of loss, grief, and fear during war.
Many children witness the murder of relatives, brothers, sisters, and parents. War also breaks down trust between people. Children can no longer trust adults. The pain suffered by survivors of war lasts a life time and often causes one to lose their speech, to not sleep, to have nightmares, to lose their desire to eat, to withdraw from others, to lose interest in play, to become anxious or violent, and to acquire learning difficulties. Years of therapy is needed before they can learn to live with so many painful memories and continue with a normal life.