African children subject to 'alarming' levels of violence
NEW YORK ( Thomson Reuters Foundation ) - Children across Africa face unacceptably high levels of physical, sexual and emotional violence at home, at school and in the streets, researchers specializing in children's rights said on Wednesday. Some 92 percent of pupils interviewed in Togo, 86 percent in Sierra Leone, 73 percent in Egypt, 71 percent in Ghana and 60 percent in Kenya said they had experienced violence from teachers and classmates, according to a report by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF). The report by the Ethiopia-based research institute also showed that 60 percent of children in Zambia, Morocco and Uganda had been physically punished by family members, as were nearly half of children surveyed in Mali and Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, Uganda and Zambia, 16 percent of children interviewed said they had scars on their bodies due to physical punishment. "The burden of creating a continent where children live and grow up in safety principally l