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Freezing temperature kills 15 displaced Syrian kids

Syrian children walk together in the mud past tents at a camp for the displaced near the village of Shamarin, near the border with Turkey in the northern Aleppo province, on January 11, 2019.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) says at least eight internally displaced Syrian children have lost their lives because of freezing temperatures and the lack of medical care at a refugee camp in southwestern Syria over the past few weeks.

The UN children's agency said on Tuesday that the minors died as a result of cold and harsh living conditions at the desolate Rukban refugee camp near Syria's border with Jordan.

Seven more children were during displacement from the Daesh-held Hajin town in Syria’s troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

A handout photo released by the Syrian Arab Red Cross (SARC) on November 5, 2018, shows displaced people receiving vaccinations at the Rukban desert camp for displaced Syrians along Syria's border with Jordan.

“Freezing temperatures and harsh living conditions in Rukban... are increasingly putting children's lives at risk,” UNICEF regional director Geert Cappelaere said.

Syrian children walk together in the mud past tents at a camp for the displaced near the village of Shamarin, near the border with Turkey in the northern Aleppo province, on January 11, 2019.

“In just one month, at least eight children -- most of them under four months and the youngest only one hour old -- have died," he said.

A Syrian girl walks in the mud holding jerry cans next to a tent at a camp for the displaced near the village of Shamarin, near the border with Turkey in the northern Aleppo province, on January 11, 2019.

The top UN official noted that the cold in the isolated desert camp was increasing infant mortality.

Syrian displaced kids shield themselves from the cold inside a tent in the Internal  Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of al-Hol in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on December 8, 2018.

“Families seeking safety face difficulties leaving the conflict zone and wait in the cold for days without shelter or basic supplies,” Cappelaere said. “The dangerous and difficult journey has reportedly killed seven children -- most of them under one-year-old” in Hajin.

A Syrian displaced child poses inside a basement the city of al-Bab the northern Aleppo province on the border with Turkey, on December 7, 2018.

“The lives of babies continue to be cut short by health conditions that are preventable or treatable. There are no excuses for this in the 21st century," Cappelaere said. “This tragic man-made loss of life must end now."

A Syrian child cries as she stands out in the open in Abu Al-Khashab camp for the displaced from the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, northwest of the city of Dayr al-Zawr, on January 10, 2019.

On Saturday, a Syrian mother has attempted to torch herself and her children to death in Rukban camp after she failed to find food for her family for three straight days.

A young child who was displaced with families from Dayr al-Zawr and its surroundings, walks at a camp for displaced people near the town of al-Arishah in the northeastern Syrian Hasaka province on November 15, 2018.

Other refugees in the camp put out the fire, which damaged the tent, and evacuated the woman and her children to hospital. The woman and her infant were seriously hurt while the two other children suffered minor injuries.

The United Nations says about 45,000 people, mostly women and children, are trapped inside Rukban refugee camp.

This is while Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has put the number of refugees living there closer to 60,000.

A displaced Syrian girl who fled from regime raids stands outside her tent in a camp in Kafr Lusin near the border with Turkey in the northern part of Syria.

Last October, the Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said people in Rukban camp have been without access to food and humanitarian materials for several months.

The Observatory highlighted that the tough situation is coupled with a closed border by Jordan.

In this handout photo released by the Syrian Arab Red Cross (SARC) Office in Syria on November 4, 2018, workers of the Syrian Arab Red Cross (SARC) deliver humanitarian aids in the Rukban desert camp for displaced Syrians along Syria's border with Jordan.

Jordan closed its border with Syria following an attack on its soldiers by Daesh Takfiri terrorists back in 2016. Earlier this week, however, Amman re-opened the Nasib border crossing with Syria for the first time in three years, as the crisis in Syria is gradually winding down thanks to the Syrian army’s decisive gains against terrorists.

A woman carries a child as she sits in front of a tent at a camp for the displaced from the Syrian province of Idlib, at the village of al-Ghadfa, southeast of the province on September 2, 2018.

The area where Rukban camp is located is controlled by the former US-backed Shuhada al-Qaryatayn militant group. The extremists were supposed to evacuate to Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib in accordance with a Russian-backed deal, but refused to do so.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.


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