Syria’s children: barrel bombing, shelling and air strikes

(All pictures: Amer Al Shami/Save the Children)

A report from the charity, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the start of Syria’s brutal civil war, says barrel bombs, air strikes and shelling are having an adverse pyschological effect on children, who are also being deprived of food, clean water and medicine and surviving on boiled leaved and animal feed.

Besieged areas have borne the brunt of indiscriminate barrel bomb attacks, according to the report, with children also having to contend with the shelling of a school playground in Al Wa’er September and air strikes that led to at least 29 child deaths in Eastern Ghouta in December.

Save the Children interviewed more than 125 parents and children for the report. The children spoke of their fear, while parents said their sons and daughters had changed, becoming withdrawn, depressed and aggressive. Stories of children dying through malnutrition, lack of medicine, healthcare were widespread.

The report says: “No child should have to live under these conditions. Parties to the conflict have an obligation under international law to allow humanitarian aid to reach besieged areas.

“For far too long, the rights of children and other civilians in these areas have been denied, with disastrous consequences. This intolerable situation cannot be permitted to continue.

“They and their families are cut off from the outside world, surrounded by warring groups that illegally use siege against civilians as a weapon of war, preventing food, medicine, fuel and other vital supplies from entering and stopping people from fleeing. Amid the spiralling atrocities in Syria, these children are among the most vulnerable of all.”

Since 2014, The UN has passed six resolutions calling calling for unobstructed humanitarian access to besieged areas, but the number of people living under siege has doubled in the last year, says Save the Children, with fewer than 1 per cent of people receiving UN food aid in 2015.

The charity says there have been small improvements in 2016, but far more needs to be done.

Syria peace talks are due to resume in Geneva this week following a ceasefire. Although there have been breaches of the truce, there has also been a decline in violence between Bashar al-Assad’s government, supported by Russia and Hezbollah, and rebel forces, backed by the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The talks will be attended by the Syrian government and the main opposition.