Date: Jul 26, 2019 Source: The Daily Star More kids killed in Idlib in last month ‘than all of 2018’ Antonia Williams-Annunziata| The Daily Star BEIRUT: The number of children killed in Syria’s Idlib province in the last month has exceeded the total for 2018, according to the latest report released by Save the Children and its partner Hurras Network. The government offensive, which began April this year, has resulted in the deaths of at least 400 people - including 90 children - and displaced 440,000, according to U.N. field reports. The majority of the victims were women and children. Save the Children and Hurras Network, a Syrian civil society group, confirmed that at least 33 children had been killed since June 24, compared to the 31 killed in all of 2018. Idlib is home to 3 million people, “including 1 million children, so [making up] one-third of the population,” Save the Children spokesperson Joelle Bassoul told The Daily Star via email. “Since markets, homes, health facilities and civilian infrastructure are being hit by the bombing, [that is the reason] we are seeing a high death toll among civilians - including women and children,” Bassoul added. “People on the ground have told us that in one neighborhood, parents could not retrieve the bodies of four children who ended up torn into pieces by a bomb.” Since the government offensive on the northwest de-escalation zone began, humanitarian groups have been struggling to respond to the resulting displacement. “The current situation in Idlib is a nightmare. The injuries we are seeing are horrific. It’s clear that once again children have been killed or injured in indiscriminate attacks,” Sonia Khush, Save the Children Syria response director, said in a statement. “‘The bombardment is relentless. It seems as though the different sides have stopped fighting each other and are fighting us, civilians now. It’s just senseless brutality,’” the statement said, citing a witness who uses the pseudonym Ahmad, for fear of reprisal. According to the United Nations, at least four medical facilities have been destroyed by the offensive in the last two weeks, including a water station serving more than 80,000 people and several schools, markets, bakeries and settlements for displaced civilians. “There is a complete disregard by all warring parties in Syria to international human rights and humanitarian laws, as well as the protection of civilians,” Bassoul said. “No place is safe in Idlib.” At least eight water facilities that provided drinking water for around 250,000 people in southern Idlib have been attacked in the last two months alone, as summer temperatures soar and the increased risk of infectious diseases threaten civilians. “When schools, hospitals and homes are targeted, civilians have no safe place to go to. Most of the children killed since April in Idlib have lost their lives at home or at school,” Bassoul said. Across Syria, 2.1 million children are out of school and 1.3 million are at risk of dropping out, according to the U.N. In Idlib, at least 44 schools have been damaged or destroyed recently, as attacks on educational facilities and personnel have risen. “The children of northwest Syria have been caught in violent conflict for 80 days with no lull. They have been denied education, food, health care, and forced to sleep under the trees in open fields for months now,” Khush said. Russian airstrikes Thursday killed seven civilians, including one child, in the area, most in and around the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In neighboring Aleppo province, regime air raids killed five civilians, including two children, the Britain-based activist group added. The insurgent-held bastion is home to the largest internally displaced populations in the country, with half of the population having been uprooted at least once, and some having been displaced up to seven times during the conflict. “What is required is the political will by all parties to the conflict to stop the fighting and allow immediate access to people in need of help,” Bassoul said. “If there is no end to the airstrikes and shelling, there will sadly be no end to the increase in the death toll.” - With AFP