Syrian crisis
After 13 years of conflict and crisis, children continue to pay the heaviest price.
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Updated 15 March 2024
What’s happening in Syria?
Thirteen years of humanitarian crisis and hostilities has left children in Syria facing one of the most complex emergencies in the world. Almost 7.5 million children in Syria will need humanitarian assistance in 2024 because of the worsening economic crisis, mass displacement, and devastated public infrastructure. The country is also still grappling with the aftermath of severe human and material damage from catastrophic earthquakes and aftershocks in February 2023.
Around 90 per cent of families in the country live in poverty. The ongoing economic crisis is worsening negative coping mechanisms and particularly affecting female-headed households while contributing to the normalization of gender-based violence and child exploitation. Years of conflict have forced many children and families to flee to safer areas, resulting in considerable internal displacement. Due to the level of poverty associated with migrating populations, the most vulnerable children and their families often end up in slums if they move to urban areas.
Meanwhile, the collapsing health care system, lack of access to safe water, poor sanitation and increasing food insecurity has resulted not only in increased vulnerability to fast-spreading waterborne and vaccine-preventable diseases, but also sparked a dramatic increase in malnutrition among children.
Read UNICEF’s 2024 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal for Syria
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How have children been affected by more than a decade of 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. They struggle with physical and psychological scars of conflict.
An estimated more than 650,000 children under the age of five are stunted, the result of chronic undernutrition, leaving them at risk of irreversible physical and psychological damage.
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.
Check here for the latest Situation Reports for more on the situation in Syria and UNICEF’s response.