UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Marixie Mercado told journalists in Geneva that many of the children “were working to provide income back to families, and were desperate to get back to school.”
Of the 4,150 Syrian children identified and registered, at least 1,698 are in Lebanon where in theBeka’a Valley area, many are swept up and used for agricultural child labour.
In Iraq, the UN agency estimated that there were 300 newly-arrived unaccompanied and separated children in the north.
Jordan is home to about 1,170 children, including some as young as nine-years-old. Most of these children, Ms. Mercado said, are in Za’atari camp, which despite being a makeshift camp housing more than 120,000 people is Jordan’s fourth largest city.
“Each of those children had witnessed, or been a victim of horrific levels of violence,” Ms. Mercado said, adding that some children ran for their lives from the fighting, while others went to find relatives who had earlier left. Still others were being sent away to avoid conscription.
UNICEF was working with partners to identify the children and make sure they are being protected, as well as to provide medical, psychosocial and educational support.
She told a story of 11-year-old Aya who lived with her uncle in a settlement in an almond orchard, taking care of her younger siblings.
“She started going to UNICEF-supported recreational activities, and last Thursday, for the first time, she spoke about seeing her father hacked to pieces in front of her,” Ms. Mercado said.
Also today, the UN food relief agency called for safe passage to people trapped in conflict areas in Damascus, Rural Damascus and several other areas in Syria, particularly families relying on WFP’s food rations to survive month to month.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) “was not giving up and would deploy all its logistical possibilities and its experience in this field to reach those people,” spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs said.
She added those logistics were increasingly difficult. Since the beginning of the year, the WFP had recorded close to 50 incidents of theft and confiscation against food trucks by armed groups. This week, a WFP warehouse in Rural Damascus was caught in the crossfire when three mortar bombs hit the building, causing structural damage.
Since mid-2012, the UN agency had been unable to access 38 locations such as Moadamiyeh, Daraya, Armouk, Hajar Aswad, Yalda, Babila, Sbineh, Douma, Jobar, Qaboon, Zamalka and Erbeen which were some of the most deprived areas where even the most basic items were in scarce supply, Ms. Mercado said.
Elsewhere, in Northeast Syria, the WFP last month was unable to deliver food rations to its three partners in Al Hassakeh as the roads from both Ar Raqqa and Deir Ezzor were blocked by armed groups.
un.org
20/9/13
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Aid agencies: Fragmented opposition, Syrian government both hamper aid...
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Bringing supplies from the capital to the divided northern city of Aleppo - a distance of 355 kms - is slow and fraught, said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) operations worldwide.
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UN agency reaches ‘record’ number of Syrians with food, but many remain cut off...
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“WFP is concerned about the fate of many Syrians trapped in conflict areas and still in need of urgent food assistance,” spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told journalists in Geneva.
“Some 3.3 million has reached in October, but the overall target for WFP for the entire Syria was to reach four million people by the end of December 2013,” the spokesperson added.
Damascus and Rural Damascus remain one of WFP’s biggest challenges due to insecurity and the siege in many conflict areas, said Mr. Byrnes.
People are still trapped in Moadamiyeh, she noted, but the UN agency has not been able to enter the area.
“WFP and UN partners had made nine unsuccessful attempts to reach Moadamiyeh and could not confirm what exactly was happening in that area,” the spokesperson said.
Since mid-2012, WFP had been unable to access 37 other locations, such as Daraya, Yarmouk, Hajar Aswad, Yalda, Babila, Sbineh, Douma, Jobar, Qaboon, Zamalka and Erbeen.
These are some of the most deprived areas where “even the most basic items were in scarce supply”, the spokesperson noted.
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The community is also grabbling with a lack of skilled professionals to deal with malnutrition.
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New UN airlift ships food from Iraq to 30,000 Syrians cut off on land by civil war...
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