Idlib push: Babies freezing to death
Over half-a-million children in northwestern Syria forced to flee
Beirut, Feb. 18: The Italian Committee for UNICEF has warned that the imminent arrival of freezing temperatures across the Middle East poses a serious danger for refugees in the area, in particular Syrian children as over half-a-million children in northwest Syria have been forced to flee amid continued violence and harsh weather.
The mass displacement of civilians is sparking fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Around 900,000 people have been forced from their homes and shelters in less than three months, leaving huge numbers to sleep rough in the thick of winter. Children have died of exposure in snow-covered camps and the UN has warned that the crisis could worsen if no ceasefire is reached to facilitate the relief effort. “Over the past four days alone, some 43,000 newly displaced people have fled western Aleppo where fighting has been particularly fierce,” UN spokesman David Swanson said.
Since the start of February, the displacement figure was a staggering 300,000, he said. The wave of displacement is the biggest since the start of the civil war nearly nine years ago. It is the largest exodus of civilians since World War II. “The
violence in northwest Syria is indiscriminate. Health facilities, schools, residential areas, mosques and markets have been hit,” the UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, Mark Lowcock, said on Monday. He said that basic infrastructure was falling apart, that health facilities were being destroyed and that the risk of disease outbreaks was high.
“The biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st Century will only be avoided if Security
Council members, and those with influence, overcome individual interests and put a collective stake in humanity first,” Lowcock said.
Russia, the main foreign broker in Syria, has vetoed countless resolutions on the conflict. “The only option is a ceasefire,” Lowcock said. Seven children, including a sevenmonth-old baby, have died from freezing temperatures.