Syrian youth still paying high price for decade of war - Red Cross

Young Syrians have suffered heavy personal losses in a decade of war and still have to face rebuilding their shattered homeland, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Millions of Syrians remain displaced in their country or fled abroad amid a "shocking disregard" for the rules of war that mark the conflict, the humanitarian agency said.

Schools, hospitals and public services have been destroyed by air strikes and shelling since protests broke out against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in mid-March 2011.

Syrians aged 18-25 have paid a heavy price, according to an ICRC survey of 1,400 Syrian nationals in Syria, Lebanon and Germany.

"One of the shocking results of this survey is that we realized that 50% of Syrians had friends, a family member who was killed", Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC's regional director for the Middle East, told Reuters.

"One out of six Syrians had one of their parents either killed or wounded", he added.

"Rebuilding the country is on their shoulders and obviously it's quite unfair," he said in an interview at its headquarters.

Nearly half of youth lost their income because of the conflict and almost eight in 10 reported struggling to find or afford food and necessities.

 

 

 

REUTERS