Winter weather kills 15 children in Syria: UN

BEIRUT: Freezing temperatures and the lack of medical care have killed at least 15 displaced Syrian children in recent weeks, the United Nations reported on Tuesday.

The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) said eight of them had died as a result of the cold in the Rukban camp in southeastern Syria and seven others during the displacement from the Jihadist bastion of Hajin, further north. "Freezing temperatures and harsh living conditions in Rukban... are increasingly putting children’s lives at risk," Unicef regional director Geert Cappelaere said.

"In just one month, at least eight children -- most of them under four months and the youngest only one hour old -- have died," he said. Cappelaere said cold in the isolated desert camp where 80 percent of the 45,000 residents are women and children, was increasing infant mortality.