A/HRC/13/65 page 15 D. Children’s rights 56. The major violation of human rights of children is the recruitment of child soldiers by all parties to the conflict in Somalia. The Islamists normally recruit them from Madrasas and Koranic schools. A survey commissioned by UNICEF revealed the alarming scale and nature of child recruitment. Children are being recruited, even for use on the front line, and are the victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Children’s education continues to suffer as more and more schools close as a result of the conflict, especially in Mogadishu. 57. Despite this grim picture, the good news is that UNICEF efforts benefited some 1.8 million people in 2009, mostly children, with basic health and nutrition services provided through, inter alia, a network of maternal and child health centres. Child health days – including an essential life-saving health and nutrition package – benefited over 1 million children under 5 and 800,000 women of childbearing age. These interventions were able to reach even most difficult areas, such as Afgoye and parts of Mogadishu, in south Somalia. UNICEF also supported access to quality education for more than 157,000 emergency-affected children by providing school supplies and textbooks. V. HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN PUNTLAND A. Meeting with the Puntland Government 58. In the absence of the President of Puntland, the independent expert met with the VicePresident, Abdi Samed, and the entire cabinet on 20 January 2010. The independent expert believes that their readiness for such a meeting could be taken as evidence of their commitment to his mandate. The discussions were focused primarily on the human rights situation of IDPs, the policy response of the Government to piracy and human trafficking. 59. Out of 1.5 million IDPs in Somalia, Puntland hosts 104,000. The Vice-President reiterated the commitment of the authorities to continuing to welcome them; however, with limited resources, Puntland felt overburdened with IDPs and refugees and asylum-seekers from Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Puntland Government sees the new arrivals as a major security threat in the context of infiltration of hard-line Islamists from the south. It claimed that some IDPs had committed politically motivated assassinations. This led the Government at one point to ask IDPs to return to places in the south of the country where there was peace. The independent expert urged the Government to continue to protect the rights and freedoms of IDPs and drew attention to the report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, who visited Somalia from 14 to 21 October 2009.3 60. With regard to piracy off the Somali coasts and the huge sums of money it generates through ransom payment, the Puntland Government considered that it posed a threat not only for Somalia but for the region as a whole. Millions of US dollars are paid to organized pirates in 3 A/HRC/13/21/Add.2.