Syria’s children a generation destroyed by war
Report details daily dangers, from hunger and disease to physical, emotional trauma
Before Syria’s catastrophic war exploded in March 2011, it was a middle-class country with almost 100per-cent literacy, routine immunization for children, little grinding poverty and a well-developed healthcare system.
Now, five years later, the country has collapsed, millions have fled, many dying in the attempt, and the outlook for the children who will be tomorrow’s adults ranges from grim to alarming. The conflict that has taken more than 250,000 lives is a war on an entire generation.
Areport published today by the UN children’s agency UNICEF details the dangers Syrian children face daily, from hunger to military attacks, physical and emotional trauma, disease and recruitment to violence.
“Bombs have turned classrooms, health centres and parks to rubble,” the report says. “The streets where they should be able to play are blocked by checkpoints or littered with explosive remnants of war.
“Diseases once vanquished have returned. The supply of water is often unreliable or contaminated. In some parts of Syria, once a developed and self-sufficient country, children are dying of severe acute malnutrition.”
Armed groups are recruiting children at earlier ages, UNICEF said — including those as young as seven. Some are offered “gifts and salaries of up to $400 (U.S.) a month,” others are kidnapped, including 150 schoolboys seized on the way home from exams in the beleaguered city of Aleppo.
The UN has verified that more than 460 children have been abducted as fighters.
“Children are receiving military training and participating in combat or taking up life-threatening roles at the battlefront,” the report said. “Parties to the conflict are using children to kill, including as executioners and snipers.”
Numbers of child refugees have also escalated from 520,348 in 2013 to 2.4 million today. But for those who make it to safety, there is no certainty of a future.
“There’s a sense of limbo,” says David Morley, UNICEF Canada’s president and CEO, who has visited refugee camps in the region. “They aren’t sure of who they are. They just want to be home.”
“Five years in the life of a child is massive. Some have known nothing but war.” DAVID MORLEY PRESIDENT/CEO, UNICEF CANADA
But, he adds, providing education is crucial to prevent millions of Syrian children from becoming a lost generation.
“Five years in the life of a child is massive. Some have known nothing but war. We need to give them a place where they can feel nurtured. It’s important to get educational material into schools and provide places of protection, learning and love.”
Inside Syria, he says, international humanitarian law must be observed so that aid agencies can supply people with food, medical help and clean water in areas where they are under siege.
In January, UNICEF staff found desperate conditions when they were allowed into the besieged town of Madaya. Starving children begged for bread, others were dying, too weak to survive even after help arrived.
Even during a current ceasefire between the regime of President Bashar Assad and opposing groups, fighting has continued in Syria between government forces and rebels. Nor have Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, or other extremist groups halted their assaults and atrocities.
If a peace deal is eventually reached, UNICEF warned, “shattered cities cannot be rebuilt in a year — and neither can shattered lives.” Current funding is inadequate and slow to arrive. UNICEF has ap- pealed for $1.1 billion for aid to Syrian children inside and outside the country in 2016, but received only $74 million to date.
A separate report, issued last week and signed by 30 aid and human rights groups — including Oxfam, Care International and Save the Children — pointed a finger at the UN’s veto-wielding permanent members.
It accused them of failing to apply diplomatic pressure to alleviate Syrians’ suffering, and instead “fuelling the fire” by lending military and political support to their allies and proxies in the conflict.
“The fifth year of the Syria conflict was the worst yet for people as warring parties have continued to wreak havoc, increasingly blocked aid and placed more communities under siege,” it said.