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07-31-2017, 06:08 PM
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Lost children are legacy of battle for Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq: Thousands of children have been separated from their parents in the nine-month battle for Mosul and the preceding years of Islamic State rule in **rthern Iraq - some found wandering alone and afraid among the rubble, others joining the refugee exodus from the pulverized city.
In some cases their parents have been killed. Families have been split up as they fled street fighting, air strikes or Islamic State repression. Many are traumatised from the horrors they have endured. Protecting the youngsters and reuniting them with their families is an urgent task for humanitarian organisations. "These children are extremely vulnerable," said Mariyampillai Mariyaselvam, a child protection specialist with Unicef (the United Nations Children´s Fund). "Most have gone through a very painful history." Nine-year-old Meriam had left her family one day last October to visit her grandmother in west Mosul, then under Islamic State rule. The government offensive to recapture the city began, so she stayed there. Her father Hassan told Reuters he had been a policeman but quit when the radical Islamists seized Mosul in 2014, fearing he would be targeted. He, his second wife, along with Meriam and her three half-siblings moved from dwelling to dwelling. "We were living in many different places, moving around. Meriam stayed with her grandmother but when the bridges were shut down, I could **t cross the river to see her," he said, speaking in the abandoned, half-built house in east Mosul where the family is **w squatting. They eventually fled to the Hassan Sham displaced persons camp but Meriam was trapped in the west. After government forces retook the neighbourhood in June, she and her grandmother made it to the Khazer camp. Her father asked Unicef for help and they managed to track down his daughter. They were reunited in Hassan Sham later that month. "I was hearing bombing and killing every day. I did **t believe they would find her," he said. Life is still hard for the family. They left the camp to return to the city with their few possessions, but the house owner wants to evict them. Hassan makes ends meet by finding day jobs. But at least they are together, he said, cuddling his daughter as he spoke. Meriam, a bright-eyed girl with a shy smile, said she would like to go to school. "I have never been to school. I would like to have books, a backpack, and to learn letters. That is my dream," she said. Unicef says children in shock had been found in debris or hidden in tunnels in Mosul. Some had Lost their families while fleeing to safety but sometimes parents had been forced to abandon children or give them away. Many children were forced to fight or carry out violent acts, it said in a statement. They were also vulnerable to ***ual exploitation. Unicef´s Mariyaselvam, speaking to Reuters in Erbil, said the number of children coming out of Mosul had increased in the past few months as the battle reached its climax. He explained the distinction between separated children, who are split from their legal guardians but are with friends or relatives, and unaccompanied children, who are alone and without care or guardians. —Reuters أكثر... ??????? ??????: Lost children are legacy of battle for Mosul || ??????: ahlam1399 || ??????: اسم منتداك
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