Syria war: 2016 was the worst year for children, says Unicef
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beirut — In Syria, last year was the worst yet for the country’s rising generation, with at least 652 children killed in 2016, the United Nations’ child relief agency said on Monday.
There was no letup to attacks on schools, hospitals, playgrounds, parks and homes as the Syrian government, its opponents and the allies of both sides showed callous disregard for the laws of war.
Unicef said at least 255 children were killed in or near schools last year and 1.7 million youngsters are out of school.
One of every three schools in Syria is unusable, some because armed groups occupy them. An additional 2.3 million Syrian children are refugees elsewhere in the Middle East.
The figures came in a Unicef report released ahead of the sixth anniversary later this week of the 2011 popular uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule. The uprising, which was part of the Arab Spring movements across the Mideast, quickly escalated into full-blown civil war. Children were among the first victims of the government’s brutal crackdown.
On March 15, 2011, a small demonstration broke out in the capital of Damascus and three days later, residents in the southern Syrian city of Daraa marched to demand the release of teenage students arrested for writing anti-government slogans on their school’s walls. They were tortured in detention. The Unicef report children were recruited by armed factions last year — more than twice compared to the year before
Over the last year in syria, all parties involved have blocked vital aid supplies and millions have become poorer, hungrier and more isolated from assistance and from the world Carsten Hansen, NRC’s Middle East director
warns that for Syria’s young generation, coping mechanisms and medical care are eroding quickly, driving children into child labor, early marriage and combat. Dozens of children are also dying from preventable diseases.
The use of child soldiers is on the rise in Syria, Unicef also said. At least 851 children were recruited by armed factions last year — more than twice compared to the year before.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Refugee Council said that as the sixth year of Syria’s conflict nears its end, 13.5 million people remain in need of aid in dire and deteriorating con- ditions. Half as many are displaced in their own country, with almost 5 million refugees in neighboring countries where conditions keep getting increasingly desperate. “Over the last year in Syria, all parties involved have blocked vital aid supplies and millions have become poorer, hungrier and more isolated from assistance and from the world,” said NRC’s Mideast director, Carsten Hansen. —