Nearly 500,000 Syrian Children Completely Cut Off From Humanitarian Aid - UNICEF

Nearly 500,000 children are currently living in besieged areas in war torn Syria without any access to humanitarian aid, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a press release on Sunday.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — According to UNICEF, the children that have no access to humanitarian aid are living in 16 besieged areas across Syria.

"As violence continues to escalate across Syria, the number of children living under siege has doubled in less than one year. Nearly 500,000 children now live in 16 besieged areas across the country, almost completely cut off from sustained humanitarian aid and basic services," the press release reads.

UNICEF reported that in eastern Aleppo alone 100,0000 children are living under siege.

Earlier in November, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien said that the number of people living in besieged areas in Syria had increased to one million.

The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, and has since developed into a bitter conflict between government forces, armed opposition and terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and Jabhat Fatah al Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, both outlawed in a number of countries, including the United States and Russia.