UNICEF makes record appeal to help 60 million children in crisis

Children play football at Pansville, DuPort Road area, in Monrovia February 3, 2013. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The U.N. Children's Fund launched a record $3.1 billion (2 billion pounds) appeal on Thursday to enable it to help children caught up in a "new generation" of conflicts and disasters round the world, $1 billion more than it sought in 2014.

A series of more complex and destructive crises, natural disasters and emergencies such as the Ebola epidemic, are putting some 60 million children in extraordinary danger of violence, hunger, disease and abuse, UNICEF said.