'No safe place left' for children in war-ravaged Aleppo, says senior UNICEF official

Returning from a mission to Aleppo, a senior United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF) official in Syria described “haunting images” of children killed by mortars and malnourishment, and said that the terrible situation “continues to plummet to even greater lows.”

“When I was there, nearly 100 mortars fell on west Aleppo in a couple of days [...] explosions lit up the night sky and the sounds of war reverberated across the city,” said Hannah Singer, the UNICEF Syria Representative, in a statement today.

“Even by Syrian standards, the recent bombardment and shelling have been the most intense in Aleppo,” she added.

She further said that some 31,500 people have been displaced from eastern Aleppo in recent days and that based on latest estimates, at least half of them seem to be children.

Painting a grave picture of the scene in eastern Aleppo's Hanano, a neighbourhood that was retaken by Government forces on 27 November, Ms. Singer said: “The destruction was massive. Unexploded ordnance scattered everywhere. Apartments were gutted, hospitals nearly destroyed and schools completely damaged except for two that could be rehabilitated.”

I will be forever haunted by the images of the bodies of two beautiful girls, Hanadi and Lamar, who left for school one morning with pink ribbons in their hair. They never made it.

'No safe place left in Aleppo'

Noting that, so far this year there had been 84 attacks on schools in Syria with at least 69 children killed and many others injured while at school, Ms. Singer underscored: “Even going to school can be a matter of life or death.”

“And I will be forever haunted by the images of the bodies of the two beautiful girls, Hanadi and Lamar, who left for school one morning with pink ribbons in their hair. They never made it. Shrapnel from a mortar hit them on the way and they were killed. Hanadi's hand still grasped the remains of a chocolate bar,” she added.

500,000 children estimated trapped in 'sieges' across Syria

Ms. Singer added that while the world's attention is on Aleppo, eastern Aleppo is only one 16 besieged areas in the country, where an estimated half a million children remain trapped amid worsening conditions.

“Besiegement – a tactic of war from the Middle Ages – has been used by all sides. Where armed forces surround an area and try to starve the other into submission, whilst restricting the movement of persons, including the sick and wounded,” she noted.

She further noted extreme lack of food and medical services that are taking a toll on children with cases of extreme malnutrition resulting in deaths of children.

Violence has to stop

Ms. Singer emphasized that for the situation to improve and humanitarian plight to be alleviated, the fighting must stop.

She said that while UNICEF has been distributing winter clothes, supplying water and fuel, and providing nutrition supplements immunizations, psychosocial support and mine-risk education.

Calling on all parties to the conflict to stop employing sieges, attacking civilians, schools and hospitals as well as to stop recruiting and using children in armed forces, she stressed that until that happened, efforts of humanitarian workers and agencies will not amount to much.

“We can make a difference but it's never enough. Let's be clear, as long as the violence continues, children in Syria will suffer,” she said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at a press stakeout with the Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of Austria, Sebastian Kurz. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Situation in eastern Aleppo 'very heart breaking' – UN chief

Also today, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told journalists in Vienna, Austria that the UN through Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has been working very hard to resolve the Syrian crisis through an inclusive political solution.

“Unfortunately, during the last six years we have not been able to do that,” he added.

Noting that the ongoing fighting has made delivery of live-saving relief extremely difficult he underlined the need for a sustainable cessation of hostilities so that the organization is able to perform its humanitarian operations.

“I have been urging the Syrian authorities and the Syrian armed groups and also the coalition partners to keep their promise, so that we do our proper humanitarian role, in the absence of a political solution,” he emphasized.