Nearly 850 boys and girls in Hasaka, in northeastern Syria, are at risk of violence, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Intensifying violence in Al Hasakah, which is linked to the “Ghwayran” jailbreak attempt last Thursday, has put the safety of approximately 850 children in detention in danger. Some of the children are as young as twelve years old. According to reports, over 100 people have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced as a result of the ongoing violence.

“As fighting continues, the risk for children increases including to be harmed or forcibly recruited. Violence might also spread to other prisons, inside the camps and local communities.

UNICEF has called for the release of these children, saying that their incarceration should be limited to the very last resort and should last as little time as possible.

“Children in the Ghwayran prison are children and have the right to access restorative justice procedures. We call for the release of children from prison. Detention of children should only be a measure of last resort and for the shortest time possible.

Nearly 10,000 children and their mothers are held in detention centers at the Al-Hol and Roj camps in Syria’s northeast. They’ve arrived from more than 60 nations, and they’re battling to stay alive as the weather becomes worse and the winter gets colder. They are all extremely vulnerable and require immediate assistance. Basic services such as warm clothing, cleanliness, health, education, and food are unavailable to children.

“UNICEF calls on all parties in the northeast and elsewhere in Syria to keep children out of harm’s way and protect them at all times.”

Kurdish forces and the international coalition fighting the Islamic State have taken control of the Ghueran prison in northeastern Syria, where the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has staged two prisoner riots in the Syrian province of Hasaka (northeast of the country), putting an end to a four-day assault by the Islamic State to free its nearly 5,000 comrades imprisoned there, which has so far resulted in more than 200 deaths.

However, in recent months, the group has increased its attacks, particularly in the aforementioned triangle between the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Hama, and Raqqa, prompting the Russian Army to increase its bombing in support of government troops, who maintain a tense ‘status quo’ with militias from the autonomous Kurdish region in the country’s northeast.

Image Credit: AP

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