ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 137 children face serious or deadly health problems or conflict-related injuries and require immediate evacuation from eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus in Syria.
“As violence continues to intensify in East Ghouta, thousands of children are suffering in silence,” said Fran Equiza, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Syria, on Sunday.
The 137 children in need of immediate evacuation suffer from severe malnutrition, kidney failure and injuries sustained during conflict and range in age between seven-months-old up to 17-years-old. Five children have already reportedly died due to no access to medical care that they urgently needed.
“The situation is getting worse day by day. The health system is crumbling and schools have now been closed for almost a month,” Equiza said. “Sick children desperately need medical evacuation, and many thousands more are being denied the chance of a normal, peaceful childhood.”
UNICEF health workers who last sent an aid convoy to eastern Ghouta, just 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside of Damascus, on November 29 described “seeing one of the worst health and nutrition situations since the conflict began in Syria,” with the mention of a severely malnourished two-year-old boy as “having an arm as thin as a little finger.”
Ghouta at various times has seen clashes between rebel groups as well as regime-on-rebel fighting.
“Children are still living through so much horror,” said Equiza. “Now is the time for all sides to do the right thing and to stop the violence.”
UNICEF reported that nearly 12 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, the highest rate ever recorded since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
Additionally, nearly one-third of school-age children, an estimated 1.75 million, are not able to attend school. Approximately one-third of schools across the country have been damaged or completely destroyed.
“Children are still living through so much horror,” said Equiza. “Now is the time for all sides to do the right thing and to stop the violence.”
As many as 400,000 people remain in the last besieged areas of Syria in eastern Ghouta and are facing severe food and medical shortages. They have been almost completely cut off from lifesaving assistance since 2013 as fighting continues in the war torn country.
Syria has been embroiled in an almost seven-year-long civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people according to the United Nations. It has been complicated by the destabilizing rise of ISIS.
“UNICEF reiterates its calls for unimpeded, unconditional and sustained humanitarian access to all children in Syria, and urges all parties to the conflict and those who have influence on them to protect children at all times and to immediately allow the evacuation of the sick and wounded,” the statement read.
“As violence continues to intensify in East Ghouta, thousands of children are suffering in silence,” said Fran Equiza, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Syria, on Sunday.
The 137 children in need of immediate evacuation suffer from severe malnutrition, kidney failure and injuries sustained during conflict and range in age between seven-months-old up to 17-years-old. Five children have already reportedly died due to no access to medical care that they urgently needed.
“The situation is getting worse day by day. The health system is crumbling and schools have now been closed for almost a month,” Equiza said. “Sick children desperately need medical evacuation, and many thousands more are being denied the chance of a normal, peaceful childhood.”
UNICEF health workers who last sent an aid convoy to eastern Ghouta, just 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside of Damascus, on November 29 described “seeing one of the worst health and nutrition situations since the conflict began in Syria,” with the mention of a severely malnourished two-year-old boy as “having an arm as thin as a little finger.”
Ghouta at various times has seen clashes between rebel groups as well as regime-on-rebel fighting.
“Children are still living through so much horror,” said Equiza. “Now is the time for all sides to do the right thing and to stop the violence.”
UNICEF reported that nearly 12 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, the highest rate ever recorded since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
Additionally, nearly one-third of school-age children, an estimated 1.75 million, are not able to attend school. Approximately one-third of schools across the country have been damaged or completely destroyed.
“Children are still living through so much horror,” said Equiza. “Now is the time for all sides to do the right thing and to stop the violence.”
As many as 400,000 people remain in the last besieged areas of Syria in eastern Ghouta and are facing severe food and medical shortages. They have been almost completely cut off from lifesaving assistance since 2013 as fighting continues in the war torn country.
Syria has been embroiled in an almost seven-year-long civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people according to the United Nations. It has been complicated by the destabilizing rise of ISIS.
“UNICEF reiterates its calls for unimpeded, unconditional and sustained humanitarian access to all children in Syria, and urges all parties to the conflict and those who have influence on them to protect children at all times and to immediately allow the evacuation of the sick and wounded,” the statement read.
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