UN relief office: Syrian children face food, healthcare challenges

The UN relief office said that Syrian children are facing food and healthcare challenges as violence is still raging in the country, which has been plunged into a political crisis since March 2011, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday. "The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that soaring food prices, the unavailability of food for children, displacement, and loss of income have made it difficult to provide Syrian children with adequate healthcare and nutrition, " Farhan Haq, the associate UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here. "The number of children admitted to hospitals with severe or acute malnutrition has reportedly increased in Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Hama, Homs, and other areas," Haq said. "Humanitarian partners report that six children have died from malnutrition in the past month in Moadamyieh, rural Damascus," he said. As the plight of civilians trapped by the Syrian conflict grows more desperate, the United Nations Children's Fund in late September called for greater efforts to ensure humanitarian access to thousands of children to safeguard their lives. Children continue to be cut off from urgently-needed assistance, including vaccinations, safe drinking water, shelter, education and psychological support, the UN agency warned. After more than two years since the outbreak of the crisis, which has reportedly claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced almost one-third of the Middle East country's population, the UN agency said, the Syrian people, including their children, are still in dire need of humanitarian assistance.