Number of Syria child refugees reaches 1 million

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Syria crisis reached another grim milestone as UN aid agencies reported that the number of registered child refugees had reached 1 million, most of whom were under 11. Within the country, more than 2 million children have been displaced, they said, according to The Guardian.

About 7,000 children have been killed since the conflict began. Of the hundreds of people killed in an apparent gas attack in rebel-held parts of eastern Damascus on Wednesday, many were children.

"This 1 millionth child refugee is not just another number," said Anthony Lake, executive director of Unicef, the UN agency for children. "This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend."

Children comprise half the refugees from the Syria conflict, according to Unicef and UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Latest figures show that about 740,000 Syrian child refugees are under 11. Most have gone to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Increasingly, Syrians are fleeing to north Africa and Europe.