Syria: One Million Children Flee Violence as Chemical Weapons Crisis Continues

UN agencies say the number of children forced to flee Syria has reached one million, with over 100,000 people killed in the conflict so far. The UN's refugee agency and Unicef say, in addition to the refugees, two million children are displaced within the country. They say that children make up half of refugees fleeing the civil war, with three-quarters of them (75%) under the age of eleven. The UN says most of the children have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said: "The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures", adding: "Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatized and depressed".   UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said a total of more than 100,000 people have so far lost their lives in violence in the country since the civil war began in 2011. He also called for an investigation "without delay" into recent alleged chemical weapons attacks near Damascus. According to activists, hundreds of people were killed on Wednesday when government forces are alleged to have used chemical gases in a rebel stronghold in Damascus. A team of UN inspectors in Syria has so far been denied access to the site of the alleged attack by the government of President Assad. Russia, one of Syria's major allies, has now joined calls for the inspectors to be granted safe passage to the site.