Syria casualties soar by nearly 50 percent since creation of so-called ‘de-escalation zones’

Latest figures show fresh levels of horror in Syria war following a complete failure of so-called de-escalation zones and other international action, with at least 37 civilians being killed every day since mid-2017 – an increase of 45 percent across Syria since the creation of ‘de-escalation zones’ including in Idlib and Eastern Ghouta.

On the seventh anniversary of the conflict, Save the Children is urging the international community to stop the culture of impunity that has taken hold over fighting in these war-torn areas, push for an immediate end to the violence, and increase monitoring and accountability for violations of international humanitarian law.

In Eastern Ghouta where hundreds of people have been killed in the past few weeks alone, children have been forced to live in basements and makeshift shelters where they’re still being killed by bombing and shelling, dying from untreated wounds, preventable illnesses and malnutrition, and suffering from severe toxic stress.

Many are in constant fear for their lives, regularly on the run, and having their futures slip out of their grasp as schools are attacked and they are forced to drop out of education.

Save the Children spoke with dozens of aid workers, children, parents, doctors, teachers and youth workers in besieged Eastern Ghouta and northwest Syria as part of a new briefing, Voices from Syria’s Danger Zones.

Four de-escalation zones (DEZ) were announced across Syria in mid-2017, supposedly providing spaces for civilians that would be safe from attack and suggesting the crisis could be nearing its end. In fact, recent events show that far from providing a haven from shelling things are actually getting worse in some of those zones. New analysis finds that since the zones were announced, there has been:

• ·         Record levels of displacement, with up to 250 children fleeing every hour – with numbers increasing by 60 percent since the DEZ were announced. The last quarter of the year showed the highest rate of displacement inside Syria for the past five years, with more than one million people made homeless in three months. [i]
• ·         Civilian casualties increased by 45 percent – with at least 37 civilians reportedly killed by explosive weapons each day across Syria, the highest rate for several years.[ii]
• ·         Rising attacks on education: More than 60 schools in Eastern Ghouta have been damaged or destroyed by bombing in the first two weeks of 2018[iii]. Save the Children-supported schools in northwest Syria report the number of days they have to close due to violence has quadrupled. Education assessments showed children are falling years behind.[iv]
• ·         A health facility attacked almost every two days – disrupting vital services to thousands of people in need of medical care, surgery or pregnant women about to give birth[v]
• ·         Systematic denial of aid: More than two million people – half of them children – in areas classified by the UN as ‘hard to reach’ or ‘besieged’ have been prevented from receiving a single aid convoy of vital food and medicine,[vi] causing record levels of child malnutrition and leaving doctors re-using bandages and needles

Many young children have grown up under unimaginably traumatic circumstances with insufficient access to affordable food and medical care. Teachers interviewed in Eastern Ghouta told Save the Children of daily occurrences of children fainting from hunger in the middle of class.

Some parents spoke of only being able to feed their children on alternate days as food prices skyrocket. In besieged Eastern Ghouta, which was once considered one of Syria’s breadbaskets, the price of bread is as much as 16 times as nearby markets.

They told of children unable to sleep due to nightmares and panicking when they heard loud noises. One mother said:  “The thing that scares us most is the warplanes. My little daughter, as soon as a plane comes, she gets a seizure. From being nervous, she gets a seizure and loses consciousness.”

One aid worker said he met a boy who had never seen an apple before and was fearful of it. Another ate an unpeeled banana, while some children are known to hide bread in case they run out of food.

Hany*, 11, described the moment his school was attacked in Idlib: “She (the teacher) was standing by the window and she told us that she’d go and get us pens and paper. Before she could do that she was hit in the head and we saw she was dead.”