African children suffer most from poverty, disease and deprivation, the U.N. child rights organisation UNICEF said in its annual report. The State Of The World's Children report said Africa was the continent most in need of help to combat poverty, HIV/AIDS and war, the three main threats facing the world's children at the start of the 21st century. The only three countries worldwide suffering a combination of all three threats were in Africa -- Liberia, Burundi and Rwanda. Across the continent, many others from Ivory Coast to Somalia were suffering from two of them. UNICEF for the first time published tables listing all the world's countries and comparing their records on areas including HIV/AIDS, child mortality, health, education, economy and nutrition. (See www.unicef.org) Carol Bellamy, the organisation's head who will step down next year after a decade, said the idea was to shame governments into action. "The data is not a one-day story. It sure as heck ought to be used to try and accelerate better investments in children," she said. --More 2338 Local Time 2038 GMT
