Syrian children growing up who know nothing but war
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ONE in three Syrian children have known nothing but war, UNICEF said yesterday, as the country’s conflict enters its sixth year this week.
Forced from their homes and schools, orphaned by violence and drafted into work or fighting, a generation of Syria’s children is being shaped by the conflict, UNICEF said.
“Every Syrian child under the age of 5 has known nothing but a lifetime shaped by war — that’s an estimated 2.9 million children inside Syria and at least 811,000 in neighboring countries,” the UN children’s agency said in a report.
Syria’s war has killed more than 270,000 people and, according to the United Nations, forced more than half of a pre-conflict population of 23 million from their homes.
“Five years into the war, millions of children have grown up too fast and way ahead of their time,” said Peter Salama, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“As the war continues, children are fighting an adult war, they are continuing to drop out of school, and many are forced into labor, while girls are marrying early,” Salama said.
Inside Syria “nearly 7 million children live in poverty, making their childhood one of loss and deprivation,” Salama said.
More than 200,000 children live in areas of Syria under siege, according to UNICEF.
And at least 2.1 million children inside the country — and 700,000 in neighboring countries — are out of school, UNICEF said.
A fragile truce since February 27 has allowed some children to return to their classrooms.
In northern city Aleppo, children have emerged from underground classrooms and gone back to school — and the joys of its open air playground — for the first time in months.
“Thanks to the cease-fire, we can play and spend time with out friends,” said Sidra, one girl. “We can now play on the slides and swings.”
In her school’s noisy yard, excited students scramble onto the slide. The merry-go-round turns slowly, overloaded with delighted children holding on from all sides.
In one classroom, dozens of children — some in woolly hats — fill up the benches and read the words on the whiteboard in enthusiastic unison.
However, according to the UNICEF report, not all Syrian children are so lucky.
“A trend of particular concern is the increase in child recruitment” by armed forces and groups, the report said.
“Children report being actively encouraged to join the war by parties to the conflict offering gifts and ‘salaries’ of up to US$400 a month,” it said.
Since 2014, recruited children are much younger than in earlier years — some as young as 7 — and often without parental consent, it said.
More than half of the UNICEF-verified cases of such recruitment last year involved children under 15, compared with fewer than 20 percent in 2014.
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