"More than 250,000 child soldiers are still participating in armed conflicts around the world and tens of thousands of girls are being sexually exploited by combatants, a senior UN official said.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, told the UN Security Council: "Since 2003, over 14 million children have been forcibly displaced ... and between 8,000 and 10,000 children are killed or maimed each year by land mines." [More]