The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that the seven-year long war in Syria has forced 2.1 million children out of school, one day after it said that nine children were killed in an attack on the town of Zardana in rural Idlib on June 7.
In a press release issued on Monday, the UN’s child agency said that children in Syria risk getting stopped and questioned at checkpoints on their way to exam centers. It added that here have been 347 verified attacks against schools and education personnel since the conflict started in 2011.
“Children in the region face a host of challenges to stay in school and complete their national exams,” UNICEF said. “Families increasingly face poverty, child labour, inability to afford transportation to school, overcrowding, lack of teachers and school space, and low quality education.”
Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF’s regional director in the Middle East and North Africa, on Monday said that at least 13 children were killed over the last week in Idlib province. He said that an “attack allegedly hit the village of Zardana in the northwestern governorate of Idlib killing nine children,” adding that such an attack is “deeply sad reminders that the war on children in Syria is far from over.”
Russian jets on June 7 bombed a children hospital in the town of Zardana in rural Idlib, killing and injuring dozens of children. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
