Over 30 children killed in E.Ghouta, Syria since Jan. 1

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA (AA) - In the first two weeks of 2018 more than 30 children have been killed in escalating violence in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, where a five-year siege has trapped an estimated 200,000 children, UNICEF said on Monday.

"At a time when most parents are filled with the new year’s hope for their children’s future, mothers and fathers in Syria are left grieving for the children they have lost," said a statement on Monday from Fran Equiza, UNICEF’s representative in Syria.

Noting that 120 children have been awaiting urgent medical evacuation, Equiza said: "We must be able to reach children in need of humanitarian assistance, urgently and without restrictions, wherever they are in Syria."

Home to some 400,000 civilians, Eastern Ghouta has been under siege by regime forces since December 2012.

The UN's top human rights official last Wednesday condemned a recent escalation in airstrikes and ground attacks by regime forces and their allies in Eastern Ghouta.

- Idlib

"In Idlib, to the northwest of the country, heavy violence reportedly killed and injured scores of children and women and displaced an estimated 100,000 civilians in the past few weeks," Equiza said.

Both Syria's Eastern Ghouta and Idlib have been considered de-escalation areas brokered in May 2017 under the Astana, Kazakhstan process by Russia, Turkey and Iran, with the aim to put an end to violence and improve the humanitarian situation.