WFP and UNICEF: End the violence
and protect children in Syria
 |
| Syrian conflict in Idlib (AFP) |
As the Syrian conflict enters its 10th year, the Heads of
the UN World Food Programme and children’s agency UNICEF are calling for a
cessation of hostilities and the protection of children.
By Vatican News
Children in Syria have endured the impact of a war that has
gone on for the past nine years.
One-third of the Syrian people are food insecure, 1 in 3
children out of school, and over half of all health facilities are
non-functional.
Returning from a two-day visit to the conflict ridden
country, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and World Food Programme
Executive Director David Beasley said, “it is now more urgent than ever to end
the violence in Syria and to improve access across the country.”
Syria is now a country on the brink economic collapse. The
numbers speak for themselves. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of
food-insecure people increased from 6.5 million to 7.9 million, and food
prices went up by 60 per cent.
In Idlib, the humanitarian situation is critical. Over the
last three months alone over half a million children have been displaced and
numerous schools are non-operational because they have either been destroyed or
damaged.
The picture does not get much better in the northeast of the
country, with WFP and UNICEF reporting that “tens of thousands of children
continue to languish in displacement camps, deprived of the most basic
services, despite the significant efforts of humanitarian partners.”
Before returning from their visit, both directors stressed
the importance of being able to move staff and supplies across conflict lines
and across borders in order to reach the populations most in need.
They also renewed their agencies’ commitment “to helping
Syria’s most vulnerable children and families and providing them with
education, nutrition, health, protection services and food.”
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