ASIA/SYRIA - More than one million children are at risk because of the food and health crisis

Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - In Syria and neighboring countries where they have taken refuge, there is an alarm for minors due to the shortage of food and health care facilities. There are tens of thousands of children involved in the internal conflict which has been going on for a year and a half without access to safe drinking water, adequate food and health care. As a result of armed conflicts, many refugee children and their families were unable to receive immunizations or other health monitoring services. In Aleppo, yesterday there was yet another massacre of young victims. According to a regional manager for Health Care of UNICEF, the situation is very serious, because during the crisis, children are the most vulnerable victims of epidemics and malnutrition, particularly those living in refugee camps such as Zaatari, in northern Jordan. The organization has eight mobile medical units in the country, thanks to which it has been able to assist 175 000 people in Aleppo, Damascus, Daraa, Hama and Homs. From the check ups carried out, the overall picture is alarming, especially in Damascus and suburbs around the capital. It is estimated that 1.3 million children are victims of the severe domestic political and military crisis, and that from the outset are actively involved in the clashes. Several human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, have denounced concrete cases of arrests, torture and murder of children involved in events or captured in the clashes between the Free Syrian Army and government forces. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 07/09/2012)