DAKAR, April 21 (Reuters) - The world is ill-equipped to deal with "modern wars" in Africa where hurting civilians and children is often an end in itself, the head of UNICEF said.

Banishing instability caused by these internal conflicts is critical to the welfare of children in West and Central Africa, UNICEF's outgoing Executive Director Carol Bellamy told Reuters.

"The global conflict resolution mechanisms basically assume a war between two states," she said in an interview.

But Africa's wars do not fit this pattern, Bellamy said. They are often within countries, involve many forces, over 90 percent of victims are civilians and the aim is not how to check an enemy advance, but how to inflict the most pain.

Any unwanted intervention can be countered by the argument that it would be a breach of national sovereignty, she said.

West and Central Africa have witnessed some of the most brutal conflicts on the continent in the past decade. The world has been shocked by images of drugged child soldiers toting guns nearly as large as themselves in Liberia, or tiny babies whose arms have been hacked off during Sierra Leone's war.

Those wars have ended for now but thousands are still being killed and maimed in Democratic Republic of Congo and young boys have joined both sides fighting in Ivory Coast's civil war.

"The situation for children in this region wasn't good 10 years ago and has improved slightly in a couple of places because of the reduction of conflict, but it's still one of the most difficult places in the world for children," Bellamy said.

"WE'RE NOT ANGELS"

Indicators on child health and protection in the region are among the lowest in the world with child mortality rates stagnating or going in the wrong direction in 18 countries.

Bellamy said enhanced and accelerated action needed to be taken on health and education in West and Central Africa and warned there could be no stability without caring for children in countries with large young populations.

"It does require political choices. Good governance is good for kids. Bad governance is not good for kids," she said.

She said a string of accusations about sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers in Africa had not affected her agency's role on the ground, but that it was damaging.

"We are the U.N., we have the public trust. We're not angels but we have every responsibility to conduct ourselves appropriately ... The U.N. has to get its act together."

She said inappropriate behaviour could never be completely avoided in such a large organisation, adding that it needed a proactive approach rather than an after-the-fact response.

After 10 years working in some of the worst humanitarian blackspots on the planet, Bellamy said she did not get depressed but always managed to see young people's potential.

She remembered a child who had inspired her on one of her first trips after taking the UNICEF job -- when she went to visit schoolchildren in a refugee camp in Liberia.

"I went over to this one little girl and I opened up (her) notebook," she said. "There was one little essay and it said 'animals with vertebrae' and I thought to myself this little girl actually has the strongest backbone."

"It's just an image I've kept. In all the stuff you see, kids are still kids."

((Editing by David Clarke))

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