PRAY FOR UKRAINE: Children 'too terrified to learn’ amid spike in attacks on schools

Schoolchildren are bearing long-lasting mental and physical scars of eastern Ukraine’s conflict, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said as the agency warned of an “alarming” increase in attacks on schools during the first four months of 2019.


Since the start of eastern Ukraine’s five-year conflict, more than 750 educational facilities on both sides have been damaged or destroyed, UNICEF said, explaining that there has been a four-fold increase in attacks on schools during the first four months of the year, compared to the same period in 2018.

Between January and April, there were 12 attacks on schools, compared to three incidents during the same period last year. The alarming increase is reminiscent of the violence experienced by schoolchildren and teachers in 2017, when there were more than 40 attacks on education facilities.

“Daily life at school is disrupted by shelling and shootings, forcing children to take cover in school basements and underground bomb shelters. In many cases, children have become too terrified to learn,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.

“Destroyed classrooms surrounded by sandbags to protect children from stray bullets are no place for a child to learn. All parties to the conflict must protect schools and keep children safe,” Ms. Fore said.

UNICEF called for an immediate end to the fighting and the protection of children at all times. The agency also urged all governments, including Ukraine, to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, an intergovernmental political commitment to take concrete measures to protect students, educators and educational facilities from deliberate and indiscriminate attack during armed conflict.

Next week, the government of Spain will host the third International Conference on Safe Schools, an opportunity for states to highlight the progress they have made in implementing the Declaration.

UNICEF said it is working with partners across eastern Ukraine to provide much-needed counselling, psychosocial support, and information on the risks of mines to hundreds of thousands of children, youth and caregivers affected by the conflict.

The agency is also providing support to education facilities so that repairs to damaged schools and kindergartens can be made, and education supplies such as educational kits, furniture and sport equipment can be replaced.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038861

INTERFAITH Study: SUMARIAN Version On the Existence of Humanity

PRAY FOR SYRIA: Starvation of Children, Women & Men, Airstrikes & Retaliation Shelling Claimed Hundreds of Thousands of Lives & Displaced Millions

In Rukban camp, which is near the Jordanian border, UN humanitarians have repeatedly called for greater access since a second convoy last reached the site in February.

Echoing that message in Geneva, Najat Rochdi, Senior Humanitarian Adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, said that more than 12,000 people had left the camp amid worsening conditions linked to shortages of basic services and supplies.


“The UN continues to advocate for a third humanitarian convoy and for food and fuel to continue to arrive to Rukban through commercial routes,” she said, adding that 29,000 remain there “and it will take time. It is simple math,” she added. “If they want to completely leave the camp - those people did not have any humanitarian assistance, any convoy, since February already, and starvation is already starting.”

Turning to the situation in Idlib, where violence has escalated in recent weeks despite a fragile ceasefire agreed last September, the UN official strongly condemned the targeting of civilians in schools and health centres – including some facilities that had moved to supposedly safer areas outside built-up areas after being targeted in previous attacks.

“Aerial bombardments including the reported use of barrel bombs causing severe damage to civilian infrastructures and civil casualties is a practice that goes against every single humanitarian principle,” she said. “Also alarming, is the reported shelling from the de-escalation zone into areas under government control.”

Latest displacement figures indicate that more than 180,000 people have likely fled their homes in Idlib, Ms. Rochdi said, explaining that for many, this was not the first time they had been forced to flee conflict from elsewhere in Syria.

Most had moved further to the north and east, she said, while others had gone to Aleppo.

“People fleeing because of fear and because of bombing is their cruel daily reality,” she said. “But now, if the bombing is continuing where do you want them to flee? They already fled there as the last resort…Where is it that they will be able to go?”

Speaking to journalists after chairing a meeting of the Humanitarian Task Force on Syria in Geneva, Ms. Rochdi reiterated the panel’s call for “an urgent de-escalation” of fighting in Idlib, and for the warring parties to recommit to the ceasefire agreement; in particular Russia and Turkey.

Of the approximately three million people living in Idlib, one million are children. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk because of the ongoing fighting, which has left tens of thousands of youngsters out of school and families sheltering under trees, the UN official explained.

“The insecurity there and the continuing airstrikes, is not something that is conducive really, to deliver humanitarian assistance,” she said. “And as you know, some NGOs, about 12, have suspended temporarily their assistance.”

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038591