The head of the Child Protection Department of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Libya, Rania Sharshar, has said that more than 15,000 individuals, including 8,000 children and more received explosives ordnance risk education in Libya, through UNICEF support, in 2019.

Sharshar said in a statement issued on the UNICEF website Tuesday that Libya is still facing severe political crises, social division, and economic challenges, due to instability and insecurity over the past years.

"Armed violence has displaced thousands of families, severely damaged the infrastructure, and critically impacted access to basic services, water, and shelter to the most vulnerable," the statement reads.

"The conflict had affected about 1.8 million people, more than 268,000 of them were children," Sharshar explained, indicating that dozens of children were killed and injured by airstrikes, shelling, small arms fire, improvised explosive devices and explosive remnants of war.

She emphasized that during 2020, UNICEF will continue to mobilize resources to scale up outreach awareness and target priority locations as identified in the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2020.

"Without additional 540,000 USD in 2020, at-risk conflict-affected children will have their life threatened by the risk of mines and explosive remnants and they will not be able to access life-saving explosives ordnance risk education," the UNICEF official added.