The Syrian conflict has hit more than 80% of the country's children, including growing numbers who are forced to work, join armed groups, or marry young because of widening poverty, the UN children’s agency said.
Peter Salama, Unicef’s regional chief, called on donor countries to make good on money pledges made at a Syria aid conference in London last month. Unicef is seeking $1.16bn (€1.04bn) for 2016 to help Syria’s children, including close to three million who are not in school.
The agency has so far received only 6% of the amount it seeks for this year. Mr Salama said it would make more sense for donors to provide the funds early on and enable more effective, longer-term planning.
“Let’s stop the suffering now, let’s ensure that they (Syria’s children) have a future, and they see that they have a future,” Mr Salama said. “We have an opportunity still to save this generation.”
Mr Salama spoke as the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, reconvened indirect talks in Geneva between representatives of Syrian president Bashar Assad and opposition groups trying to topple his government. The talks resumed after a fragile, partial ceasefire took hold on February 27.
The Syria conflict began in March 2011 as a popular uprising against Assad that quickly escalated into civil war. Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed. Almost half the pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced, including more than 4.8 million who fled their homeland.
Unicef said the conflict has affected more than 80% of Syria’s children, including seven million who now live in poverty. This has led to growing numbers of children leaving school to work, marrying young or joining armed groups, as a way of supporting their families financially, the agency said.
In refugee camps in Jordan, one third of marriages involve girls under the age of 18 — triple what it was in 2011.
The agency said it was able to confirm 354 cases of recruitment in 2015, compared with 278 in 2014.
As the UN special envoy for Syria restarted peace talks between the government and the opposition, he warned that the only alternative is a return to war and described the political transition in the country now led by Assad as “the mother of all issues”.
Moments before meeting with a Syrian government envoy, de Mistura laid out both high stakes and low expectations for what is shaping up as the most promising initiative in years to end the conflict that moves into its sixth year today.
The talks follow striking achievements in recent weeks: A ceasefire that began on February 27, vastly reducing the bloodshed, and the recent resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to thousands of Syrians in “besieged areas” — zones surrounded by fighters and generally cut off from the outside world.
Source : Irish Examiner
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