Save the Children told AFP on Monday that almost half of school-age children in Syria are deprived of education after almost 14 years of civil war, and called for “urgent action”.
The charity said most of Syria’s children are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, including food, with at least half of them requiring psychological support to recover from the trauma of the war.
“Around 3.7 million children are out of school and urgent action is needed to reintegrate them into school,” Rasha Muhrez, the charity’s Syria director, told AFP in an interview from the capital, Damascus. “That’s more than half the number of kids in school,” he said. school age”.
While Syrians have endured more than a decade of conflict, the intensified rebel offensive that ousted President Bashar al-Assad on December 8 caused further disruption, with the United Nations reporting more than 700,000 people newly displaced .
“Some schools were used as shelter again because of the new wave of displaced people,” Muhrez told AFP.
The war, which began in 2011 after Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters, has devastated Syria’s economy and public infrastructure, leaving many children vulnerable.
“Approximately 7.5 million children are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance,” Muhrez said.
“We need to make sure that children can get back to education, make sure that they have access to health again, to food, and that they are safe,” Muhrez said.
“The civil war as well as natural disasters and economic crises deprived children of their basic rights, including education, health care, protection, shelter,” he said.
– ‘trauma’ –
Syria’s war has rapidly escalated since 2011 into a major civil conflict, killing more than 500,000 and displacing millions.
More than one in four Syrians now live in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank, with the deadly earthquake of February 2023 bringing further misery.
Many children who grew up during the war are traumatized by the violence, Muhrez said.
He said, “It had a huge impact on them, for a variety of reasons, a huge traumatic impact for the loss: a parent, a sibling, a friend, a home.”
According to Save the Children, approximately 6.4 million children need psychological support.
Muhrez also warned that “continued coercive measures and sanctions on Syria will have the greatest impact on the Syrian people”.
Syria has been under tough Western sanctions against Assad’s government, including from the United States and the European Union, since the beginning of the war.
On Sunday, Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa expressed hope that the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump would lift the sanctions.
“It is very difficult for us to respond to needs and reach those in need with limited resources with these restrictive measures in place,” he said.
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