An explosion. Eight children under the age of five died in five days in the Al-Hol displaced persons camp, which notably hosts families of jihadists in northeastern Syria, the NGO Save the Children announced Thursday, denouncing a " collective humanitarian failure. The child mortality rate in Al-Hol was "more than three times higher" between August 6 and 10 than the average rate recorded since the beginning of the year, according to a statement from the British NGO.
The sprawling Al-Hol camp is home to tens of thousands of internally displaced people, including families of jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group, and is run by the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration which controls much of north-eastern Syria. “We are witnessing a collective failure at all levels to protect children,” said Sonia Khush, director of Save the Children in Syria, quoted in the statement.
"Tragic and preventable death"
She denounces "the tragic and preventable death of eight children who could have received the treatment they needed to survive." The children who died suffered from "heart problems, internal bleeding or severe malnutrition."
"The UN Security Council having failed to reopen the nearest border crossing point", "unforgivable delays" have been observed in the arrival of humanitarian aid, continues Sonia Khush. The camp's sanitation capacity has been reduced by 40%, according to Save the Children, with only one of the three field hospitals still partially operational.
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In force since 2014, a cross-border UN authorization allows aid to be delivered to the Syrian population without the approval of Damascus. But the mechanism was seriously reduced in January by Russia, which considers it violates the sovereignty of its Syrian ally, with the removal of the crossing point which allowed humanitarian aid to arrive directly in Kurdish territories from the border with Italy. 'Iraq.
To these difficulties are also added "fears of a Covid-19 epidemic" in the camp, according to Save the Children. On August 6, the first cases of the new coronavirus were identified in Al-Hol, with the contamination of three caregivers. The Kurdish administration announced that it had identified 171 cases, including eight deaths, in the areas it controls.
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