![]() ![]() In just the last three months, seven staff and five students have been killed just in the schools we support in Eastern Aleppo. ![]() Through displacement, conflict and poverty, many children have dropped out or can only attend sporadically, and parents have been afraid to send their children to school for fear they will be targeted. The official enrolment figures have fallen as low as 6 per cent, although thousands of children attend our schools every week. I love to go to school to study and I wish I could become a civil engineer to rebuild the houses that were destroyed.”Įven before this latest escalation, education had been decimated in the city. One of my friends died in the bombing – he was my best friend. When the plane comes we sit on the floor, afraid that things might fall above us. Schools are also lacking the basic necessities such as fuel to light and heat the basements, water supplies, textbooks and pencils.ġ2 year old Amjad* said, “We are not going to school because the airplanes bomb any gathering. Given the danger posed to children even in their own homes, it’s not safe for schools to reopen. More than 300 children have been killed or injured in Eastern Aleppo in the past five days. They have a devastating impact on civilian areas, killing and maiming people who thought they would be safer in a basement, and their use in Aleppo constitutes a potential war crime. These weapons, also known as ‘earthquake bombs’ are designed to destroy military installations, with a delayed fuse which creates a huge explosion underground and leaves a crater. The immense power of destruction is the most important, it can destroy underground shelters and basements and the buildings get totally destroyed, not just partially.” “Regarding the bunker buster bombs, of course only hearing the sound creates a state of terror and panic that is not like anything else. The students are also suffering poverty on all levels, you see them barely walking, dragging themselves, which makes them unable to focus on the learning and studying.” Omar*, a school principal in eastern Aleppo, said, “Parents are afraid to send their children to school because everything is targeted. Now, with the use of so-called “bunker busting bombs” over the last week, which burrow four to five metres underground then explode, even the basements schools aren’t safe. Save the Children supports 13 schools in the city, eight of which are underground – they moved into basements over the last two years to try to protect children from shelling, air strikes, barrel bombs and artillery fire which regularly hit civilian areas. ![]() Schools in Eastern Aleppo were due to re-open for the new school year tomorrow, but as the city continues to suffer a ferocious assault they will remain closed, depriving almost 100,000 school-age children of an education, and leaving them in fear for their lives. Children in Aleppo are in so much danger from bunker-busting ‘earthquake bombs’ that they cannot even go to schools that have been moved underground. ![]()
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