Syrian crisis
After nine years of conflict, children continue to pay the heaviest price.
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Syrian crisis: What you need to know
What is happening in the Syrian Arab Republic?
After nine years of conflict, the Syrian crisis continues to have a huge impact on children inside Syria, across the region and beyond. Every Syrian child has been impacted by the violence, displacement, severed family ties and lack of access to vital services caused by massive physical devastation.
The risks of malnutrition and food insecurity after years of conflict have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also causing significant disruption to education due to measures put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
How have children been affected?
The Syrian crisis remains first and foremost a protection crisis. Grave violations of children’s rights – recruitment, abductions, killing and maiming continue unabated. On average, a child in Syria has been killed every 10 hours due to violence. Meanwhile, nearly 6 million Syrian children have been born since the crisis began, growing up knowing nothing but war and displacement.
What is UNICEF doing to help children in the Syrian crisis?
Millions of Syrian children require some form of humanitarian assistance. UNICEF and partners are on the ground in Syria and across the region working to protect children, to help them cope with the impact of conflict and to resume their childhoods. This includes improving access to education and psychosocial support services to help children and caregivers to recover from trauma and to restore a sense of normalcy, as well as delivering critical humanitarian assistance in hard-to-reach areas.
Working with partners, UNICEF continues to deliver assistance including hygiene kits, safe drinking water, and screening and treatment of malnutrition. To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, UNICEF and partners have been sharing prevention and risk awareness messages and materials. Read more about UNICEF’s work and results in the country.
Check here for the latest Situation Reports.
Syrian crisis snapshot
Recent Syria news and features
What UNICEF is doing in Syria
UNICEF and partners are on the ground in Syria and across the region working to protect children, to help them cope with the impact of conflict and to resume their childhoods. This includes improving access to education and psychosocial support services to help children and caregivers to recover from trauma and to restore a sense of normalcy.
UNICEF delivers critical humanitarian assistance, such as vaccines and other health and nutrition items across the country, including accessing hard-to-reach areas. Meanwhile, UNICEF and partners are improving school facilities, training teachers and repairing water and sanitation facilities.
Read UNICEF’s 2020 Humanitarian Action for Children Syrian appeal
