Save the Children yesterday hit out at the “moral outrage” of the mounting deaths and suffering of children in the battleground Syrian city of Aleppo.
The charity said that medics across northwest Syria were looking to fortify hospitals after a wave of attacks in rebel-held east Aleppo left facilities struggling to care for injured children.
Regime forces have been waging a ferocious assault on east Aleppo since Tuesday last week, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying more than 140 civilians have been killed, 19 of them children.
The renewed fighting comes amid international concern for the fate of more than 250,000 civilians trapped in besieged rebel-held areas of the northern city.
Save the Children also condemned a rebel attack on west Aleppo on Sunday that killed at least eight children.
It said among those killed at the weekend was an education worker at a school it supports in east Aleppo, who was found buried in rubble along with her baby son.
Classes at 13 such schools in east Aleppo had been suspended as shelling intensified, Save the Children said.
It said the deadly rebel attack on the school in the west of the city showed “there is no safe place for children in this conflict.”
“Children and aid workers are being bombarded by missiles whilst they are sitting at their desks in schools and seeking treatment in hospitals, which are also under attack,” Save the Children Syria director Sonia Khush said.
“The very places they should feel safest have become deadly,” she said. “It is a moral outrage that the death toll of Aleppo’s children continues to grow and seems only set to get worse, whilst so little action is being taken to end the bombing and hold warring parties accountable for these attacks on civilians.”
Save the Children called for an internationally monitored ceasefire to bring humanitarian relief into east Aleppo, and evacuate the sick and wounded.
It said the UN and opposition groups had already agreed on access for an aid convoy which could go ahead once all sides agree to a ceasefire.
“Parties to the conflict must come together to agree an immediate ceasefire, and to evacuate civilian casualties and get life-saving aid into the area,” it said.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura on Sunday was rebuffed in Damascus on a truce proposal that would allow the opposition to administer the city’s east.
Aleppo was once the nation’s economic powerhouse, but it has been ravaged by the brutal war across Syria that has killed 300,000 people since it began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese