UNICEF warns that 6.5 million children need assistance in Syria, the highest number ever recorded

MADRID, May 8. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned this Sunday that 6.5 million children need help in Syria, the highest number ever recorded since the beginning of the crisis, more than 11 years ago.

“Millions of children continue to live in fear, need or uncertainty within Syria and neighboring countries,” stressed UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr, who has argued that the prices of basic supplies are have fired, in part, because of the crisis in Ukraine.

According to the organization’s data, in the first three months of 2022 alone, 213 children have been killed or injured in the country, reaching a figure of 13,000 since the crisis in Syria began in 2011.

Although it is not an isolated event in this Middle Eastern country, since in other neighboring countries, under the pressure of instability
political and its fragility, almost 5.8 million children depend on assistance and their lives are plagued by poverty and hardship, according to UNICEF.

“Their needs, both here and inside Syria, are growing. Many families are struggling to make ends meet. Prices for basic supplies, including food, are skyrocketing, partly as a result of the crisis in Ukraine,” Khodr has expressed in a statement.

UNICEF points out that funding for humanitarian operations “continues to decline rapidly”, and has given as an example that on the eve of the next conference in Brussels on Syria and the region, to be held on May 10, the organization has neither received nor even less than half of its financing needs for this year.

Investments to ensure assistance to these children “are essential” to restore the systems that provide essential basic services, such as education, water and sanitation, health, nutrition and social protection, according to the organization.

“UNICEF renews its call to all parties to the conflict and those with influence over them to reach a political solution to the crisis for the sake of Syria’s children and their future. In the absence of such a solution, the humanitarian response both within the country and neighboring countries must continue to receive support,” Khodr stressed.