More Syrian children killed in 2016 than in any other year

More children were killed in the Syrian conflict in 2016 than in any previous year of the war since records began, Unicef figures show.

At least 652 children died last year - more than a third of whom were in or near a school - research from the children’s charity shows.

More than 850 children were recruited to fight in the conflict in 2016 - over double the number recruited the year before.

Aside from front line casualties, hundreds of children are dying from diseases which, in a non-conflict situation, could easily be prevented, the charity warned, with access to medical care and supplies difficult.

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Unicef spokeswoman Juliette Touma, speaking from Damascus, said children were the biggest losers of the ongoing struggle.

She told the Press Association: "2016 has been the worst for the children of Syria.

“The more the war continues the more we realise, that there are no winners to this, or that there are only losers, and the biggest losers really are the children.”

But she denied that the war had produced a lost generation, praising efforts to help young people access education.

She said: “I think that we have warned for years that we could be losing a whole generation of children.

“Luckily, and thanks to the determination of the people of Syria — parents, fathers, mothers, teachers — thanks to the support of host governments, children are able to go back to school, they are able to resume their studies, catch up on what they’ve lost.

“But the sad reality is there continues to be over 2.3 million kids that are out of school, and these are the children we really, really, really have to find, to reach, to help so that we give them education, because if we don’t — if we can’t — they are going to become a lost generation.”

After six years of war, nearly six million children now depend on humanitarian assistance, a 12-fold increase from 2012, the charity said.

Ms Touma said the only way out of “this dark, dark tunnel” was through peaceful negotiation, and that she hoped negotiations over the next few weeks would take children’s needs into consideration.

PA