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“Clearly people’s focus is on Iraq and Afghanistan where British forces are involved, but at the same time as these conflicts are unfolding, there are millions of people around the world whose lives are being torn apart in other, neglected conflict zones.“ said David Peppiatt, head of humanitarian policy at the Red Cross.
“Reports often focus on numbers dead or political ramifications but behind every headline there are real people struggling to live against a background of violence. The impact of war on civilians is devastating – murder, sexual violence, displacement, disease, separation of families, lack of access to clean water and food – these are the punishments inflicted on ordinary people living in the aftermath of forgotten wars.”
A force for good
On the positive side, just over half of those polled think that Britain has been a force for good in the world over the past five years. Also, most people (58 per cent) correctly identified that civilians, rather than combatants, have suffered the highest number of casualties in armed conflicts over the last 10 years.
The Red Cross supports a wide range of projects to help people during and after armed conflicts, including relief and emergency aid, food security programmes, providing water and sanitation and their international tracing and message services which help reunite those separated by conflict.
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