UNICEF: Half a million children living under siege in Syria

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said that about half a million children in Syria are living under siege amid escalating violence in the country.

The agency noted in a press release Saturday that the number of children trapped in besieged areas had doubled in less than a year to half a million and called on all parties to the conflict to lift the siege and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to all parts of the country.

“Nearly 500,000 children now live in 16 besieged areas across the country, almost completely cut off from sustained humanitarian aid and basic services,” it added.

The agency estimated that nearly one hundred thousand children are trapped in the besieged Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Save the Children warned in a report that there is “an alarming increase” in suicide attempts among children in the town of Madaya in rural Damascus, a town under siege by the Syrian regime forces and allied Lebanese Hezbollah militia.