Amid growing international concern over indiscriminate bombing on Aleppo, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief has called for an urgent action to help more than 100,000 children who are currently “trapped in the horror” in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo.
The call by UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake was prompted by a photo story of a five-year boy, identified as Omran Daqneesh, who was pulled from a damaged building after an airstrike in the northern Syrian city.
The older brother of Omran could not survive the bombing as he succumbed to injuries, media reports said Saturday. According to some reports more than 450 people have been killed since escalation in the war for the historic city of Aleppo.
“What human being can see the stunned suffering of Omran Daqneesh, the small boy rescued from a destroyed building in Aleppo, Syria, and not feel an overwhelming sense of empathy?” Lake said on Friday.
“Can we not extend the same empathy to the more than 100,000 children also trapped in the horror that is Aleppo? They are all suffering things no child should suffer — or even see,” he said.
Omran Daqneesh, 5-year-old was rescued from rubble on August 17, 2016
Photo: Screenshot/MSNBC
“And empathy is not enough. Outrage is not enough. Empathy and outrage must be matched by action,” he said.
“Children of Omran’s age in Syria have known nothing but the horror of this war waged by adults,” he said. “We all should demand that those same adults bring an end to the nightmare of Aleppo’s children.”
At least 51 people were killed Saturday as a result of rebels’ shelling and airstrikes in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, reports said early this month.
At least 45 civilians were killed in Aleppo and to the west of the city, and another 22 died in neighboring Idlib province, reports said early this week.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest province and once a thriving economic metropolis, has witnessed intensified violent battles lately as both the Bashar al Assad’s troops and the opposition fighters have stepped up their game in the hope of achieving more gains in that key province.
FEATURED IMAGE on top of the story shows children displaced from ongoing conflict shelter under makeshift tents on Muhalak highway in the western part of Aleppo, Syria. Photo: UNICEF/Khuder Al-Issa
