Eight children die within week at Syria’s al-Hol camp: UNICEF

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Eight children have died in Syria’s al-Hol camp within a week, reports the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“UNICEF is deeply alarmed by reports that eight children under the age of five died in the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria just in less than a week,” reads a statement by the organization released late Wednesday. 

“The deaths occurred between 6-10 August. Four of them were caused by malnutrition-related complications. The others were due to dehydration from diarrhoea, heart failure, internal bleeding and hypoglycemia.”

Located in northeast Syria’s Hasaka province, approximately 68,000 people live in al-Hol camp. 90 percent are women and children. 

Many in the overcrowded camp lack access to basic services, water, and personal hygiene goods.

The organization stressed that a longer-term solution is needed for the children in al-Hol. 

“Those born to foreign nationals have the right to be safeguarded, including with legal documentation, family reunification and repatriation to their home countries when it is in their best interest,” added the statement.

Most residents are Iraqis and Syrians, half of whom are believed to have links to the terror group, after they were arrested during the liberation of ISIS territories during the campaign to oust the group from its last holdout in the Syrian town of Baghouz in March 2019.

About 10,000 ISIS-related suspects in the camp are foreign nationals, according to data published by Rojava Information Center.

NES officials have called on the international community to repatriate their nationals or help facilitate trials of suspected ISIS members in northeast Syria, known to Kurds as Rojava. However, only a few countries have responded positively. 

Save the Children's Syria Response Director warned of a “children's crisis” inside the camp shortly after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded at al-Hol due to the number of minors. 

“Any child’s death is tragic. It is even more so when the death could have been averted,” reads the UNICEF statement.