Defne Karadeniz | Getty Images
A boy looks out from a window of his home in the border town of Jarablus, Syria.
“The depth of suffering is unprecedented. Millions of children in Syria come under attack on a daily basis, their lives turned upside down,” Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a release.
Another major problem for Syrian children is the lack of access to medical care and basic medical supplies, which make otherwise preventable diseases a serious problem.
“Targeting of health facilities and health staff increased sharply in 2016, killing and injuring hundreds of medical personnel and civilians,” Bachir Tajaldin, an internist in Syria, said in the UNICEF report.
“Children are missing out on their routine immunizations, exposing them to the risk of disease,” Taljaldin added.
Since the six-year civil war began, nearly 6 million Syrian children have depended on humanitarian aid, and almost 2.3 million are living as refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. Data from Mercy Corps show that Syrians are the largest refugee population in the world — the biggest exodus since the Rwandan genocide 20 years ago.
