MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2021) Two children and 40 adults have been killed in 2021 in Al-Hol refugee camp in northern Syria near the border with Iraq, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported on Wednesday.
"The security situation in the camp is alarming with a reported killing of 40 adults and two children since the beginning of the year, 16 of them during March alone," Bo Viktor Nylund, UNICEF representative in Syria, said in an official statement.
A 16-year-old boy was shot in the camp in beginning of March, another 15-year-old child was killed on Tuesday, the report said.
In the light of the surge in violence in Al-Hol, the UNICEF has called on the authorities in charge to ensure the safety of 40,000 Syrian and foreign children, as well as other residents currently living in the camp.
"This recent increase in violence in the camp highlights the urgent need for longer term solutions for children in al-Hol. Syrian children should be safely reintegrated into their local communities and foreign children should be repatriated back to their countries of origin in a safe and dignified way," Nylund stressed.
On March 10, the UNICEF urged the international community to help fund its $1.4 billion program to help children in Syria and in neighboring countries.
