ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) Commission on Friday urged its member countries and partners to join hands to eradicate child labor.
Despite a global decline in child labor, the pan-African bloc said, "it is unfortunate to witness that most of the countries with worst child labor practices are still in Africa."
"The Africa region has also been among those most affected by situations of state fragility and crisis, which in turn heighten the risk of child labor," the AU commission said in a statement on Friday.
According to the 2016 Global Estimates of Child Labor, one-fifth of all African children are involved in child labor.
According to the report, 72.1 million African children are estimated to be in child labor and 31.5 million in hazardous work, with high prevalence in agriculture and mining.
Some 9 percent of African children are in hazardous work, which is also the highest of all the world's regions, according to the report.
