The UN children's agency says it is facing its biggest child protection crisis in the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January.

UNICEF's deputy executive director says the quake added to the country's already huge burden of unaccompanied children. Many thousands of Haitian children were orphaned or separated from their parents by the earthquake.
 

Hilde Frafjord Johnson says "the risks of child trafficking, children being sold into slavery-like conditions or illegally adopted are significant". The deputy director's comments came as the UN child agency released its annual humanitarian action report.
 

According to the report, about 40 percent of children in Haiti were already living in absolute poverty and some 300,000 were living in orphanages before the earthquake struck last month.
 

The report also appealed for emergency humanitarian aid to help women and children in 28 countries and territories. The problems are greatest in sub-Saharan African countries and three Asian countries; Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Philippines.
 

Some 24 million people in the Horn of Africa are suffering from drought, chronic food shortages and armed conflicts. Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo are all suffering from internal and cross-border conflicts. UNICEF says the position of women and children in Zimbabwe is also becoming more precarious.
 

UNICEF says it needs almost one billion euros to provide security, food, hygiene, health care and education in the regions most severely afflicted by humanitarian crises.