AMMAN, Jordan, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A UNICEF report Thursday said over 13 million children have been driven from school by war and political turmoil in the Middle East.
The report noted nearly 9,000 schools are out of use in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya because of destruction or their converted use into shelters. Forty percent of the school-age population in those countries and in affected areas of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Sudan and the Palestinian Territories are "a generation of schoolchildren who see their hopes and futures shattered," it said. It added the situation is made worse by teachers afraid to enter schools and parents unwilling to send children from the relative safety of their homes.