The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) decried the extremely dire conditions children in the areas in northwestern Syria coming under onslaught by the Assad regime and its backers are going through. It said that more than 500,000 children have been displaced in northwest Syria since 1 December 2019.
“The situation in the northwest is untenable, even by Syria’s grim standards,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director in a press release issued on Tuesday. “Children and families are caught between the violence, the biting cold, the lack of food and the desperate living conditions.”
“Such abject disregard for the safety and wellbeing of children and families is beyond the pale and must not go on…It is time for the guns to go silent and for the violence to stop once and for all,” Fore added.
According to the UN children agency, at least 77 children have been verified killed or injured due to the escalation of violence in the area since the beginning of the year.
“Parties to the conflict must protect children and the infrastructure on which they depend, give families respite and allow humanitarian workers to respond to the massive needs, in accordance with international humanitarian law.”
Moreover, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement Tuesday that airstrikes by the Assad regime have hit hospitals and displaced persons’ camps in Idlib and killed about 300 civilians since January 1, noting that about 93 percent caused by the Assad regime and its allies. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
