UN: Five Million Syrian Children Displaced
A new report by UN human rights researchers shows that armed militant groups in Syria are exploiting children for warlike purposes. Approximately 2.6 million children have been displaced within Syria and 2.5 million children have fled the country.
The UN Commission announced today, Thursday, December 26 (January 16), in its new report that various violations against Syrian children have been committed since 2011.
According to the German news agency report, the commission’s report mentions cases including the use of children in suicide operations and bombings, the employment of child soldiers in war, and sexual assault against them.
UN human rights experts estimate that 2.6 million children are internally displaced within Syria and 2.5 million children have also fled the country.
Children Deprived of Education
In this report, noting that more than 2.1 million boys and girls in Syria have been deprived of continued education so far, it states that tens of thousands have also lost educational opportunities in recent years.
Schools in Syria are repeatedly targeted by forces supporting and loyal to the Syrian government. Some civil activists have reported that on January 1, 2020, as a result of a missile attack by Syrian government forces on a school in the city of Idlib, at least eight civilians were killed.
Karen Abu Zeid, a member of the UN Commission, in this regard, referring to the necessity of immediate measures by the Syrian government to support this country, called for educational opportunities to be restored so that children can return to classrooms.
She added: “Armed groups that have defined specific territories and borders for themselves must also, as quickly as possible, provide the necessary conditions and facilities for children’s education.”
The Suffering of Syrian Children
In this report, the pain and suffering of children and the psychological damage inflicted on them have been taken into consideration, and subsequently, the placement of children in situations such as “assault and invasion, siege, torture, detention, and loss of a normal way of life” has been described as concerning.
This commission, based on interviews with five thousand Syrian children and adolescents, emphasized in another section of its report that “many Syrian boys and girls suffer from problems such as sleep disorders, feelings of insecurity, forced displacement, fear of retaliation, despair, and fear.”
The Syrian crisis began when a number of Syrian freedoms advocates held peaceful protests in March 2011. These protests quickly turned into widespread fighting and conflict, and since then, Syria has become a scene of clashes between protesters, domestic forces, and foreign powers.
The presence of some of Syria’s neighbors in this situation and the confrontation between foreign allies and domestic opponents of the Syrian government have made this country a site of many conflicts from various directions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that approximately 350,000 people, 80 percent of whom are women and children, have been displaced from the outskirts of the city of Idlib since early December 2019, as the final defensive stronghold in the Syrian war, and have taken refuge in border areas near Turkey.
Source: DW
