Syrian crisis
After 14 years of conflict and crisis, children continue to pay the heaviest price.
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Children in Syria are facing one of the most complex emergencies in the world. While the change in authorities in December 2024 brought cautious optimism, intermittent violence, localized escalations and regional tensions persisted, deepening humanitarian needs. Despite the ongoing uncertainty, UNICEF remains on the ground delivering lifesaving assistance and supporting Syrian families.
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Impact on children | How we’re responding | Results for children | Situation updates
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What’s happening in Syria?
Millions of Syria’s children have grown up knowing nothing but conflict. Shattered infrastructure, ongoing displacement and limited services have left more than 7 million children in need of humanitarian assistance.
Healthcare remains fragile, with almost 40 per cent of hospitals and health facilities partly or completely non-functional. Destruction or damage to thousands of schools and massive displacement of families has left many children out of school, putting them at greater risk of child labour, child marriage, trafficking, and recruitment and use by parties to conflict. Over a decade of devastating conflict has also left communities across Syria littered with deadly remnants of war, including hundreds of thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance scattered across the country.
Meanwhile, lack of access to safe water, poor sanitation, increasing food insecurity, and the collapsing health system have resulted not only in increased vulnerability to fast-spreading waterborne and vaccine-preventable diseases, but also sparked a dramatic increase in malnutrition among children.
Syria crisis in numbers
Children in Syria are facing one of the most complex emergencies in the world. By the start of 2026:
- An estimated 6.2 million people remained internally displaced, with 1.4 million in camps.
- Explosive ordnance contamination continued to threaten children’s safety and access to education and essential services.
An estimated 14.6 million people were food insecure, including 600,000 children under age 5 who were suffering from wasting.
How have children been affected by the crisis?
For many children in Syria, conflict is the only thing they know. They continue to live in fear of violence, landmines, and explosive remnants of war. Across the country, insecurity and economic hardship continue to contribute to human rights violations, fear and psychological distress, leading to gender-based violence, child marriage and the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse.
The country also faces one of the largest education crises in recent history, with a whole generation of Syrian children paying the price of conflict. Education facilities are overstretched, and many schools cannot be used because they have been destroyed, damaged, shelter displaced families or are being used for other purposes. Children with disabilities carry a double burden when it comes to violence, threats to their health and safety, hunger, risk of abuse, and loss of education. Lack of mobility and difficulty fleeing harm have further compounded the challenges they face.
What is UNICEF doing to help children in Syria?
Across Syria and in the neighbouring countries, UNICEF and partners continue to work to protect children, to help them cope with the impact of conflict. This includes improving psychosocial support to help children and caregivers recover from trauma, as well as delivering lifesaving support and services for children struggling physically and psychologically.
UNICEF delivers critical humanitarian assistance, such as safe drinking water, 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.
Results for children in Syria
In 2025, UNICEF and partners:
Page updated: 26 May 2026