Half a million malnourished children in Syria: "A generation of children is paying the price of war with their health."

Sanaa al Khalaf is one year and two months old and lives in the Parisha refugee camp, near the northern Syrian city of Idlib. The doctor at a health center located six kilometers from her makeshift shelter has just told her mother that she is suffering from acute malnutrition. “I couldn't breastfeed her, and I can't afford to buy formula for my daughter because it's very expensive and we're poor. I feed her starch cooked with sugar or boiled rice, but it's not enough,” her mother, Reem al Khalaf, explains to this newspaper, distressed and staring at the girl.

According to UNICEF, more than 500,000 Syrian children under the age of five suffer from life-threatening malnutrition, while another two million are on the verge of malnutrition.

“I can't afford to buy the medicines needed to treat my daughter. I live with my husband and five children in very difficult conditions and amidst great instability. We are unable to provide our children with food, water, shelter, or medical care,” Al Khalaf continues. She explains that most children in the countryside don't eat meat or fruit and are hungry and weak. “My children ask for meat, but we have no way to buy it,” she laments.

Hunger figures in Syria are rising due to funding cuts, which have been ongoing for years but are now alarming following the decision by the United States and other donor countries to reduce their aid funds, according to data compiled by a group of humanitarian organizations working in Syria and published by the UN in April . The impact is already being felt across the country, and clinics that have not been forced to close are overwhelmed. The NGO Save the Children reported in April that a third of its nutrition support programs in Syria had been suspended.

“These closures come at the worst possible time. The needs in Syria are higher than ever, yet the funds needed to help children are being cut. These are not just numbers; these are real children, real lives, being left to die,” denounced Bujar Hoxha, head of the NGO in Syria, where Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December after more than a decade of bloody civil war.

Historically, “Syria has never had a problem with child malnutrition,” Yasmine Lababidi, head of the World Food Programme (WFP) school feeding and nutrition team in Damascus, said in a statement. Even amid the conflict, children remained relatively protected, thanks in large part to the sacrifices adults have made over the years. But after the protracted conflict, economic collapse, a global pandemic, the devastating earthquake in 2023, and the aftermath of the conflict in Lebanon in the final months of 2024, the situation in Syria has changed dramatically, according to the UN organization.

I work in the fields and earn three dollars a day (2.7 euros). So I have to borrow money from my relatives to feed my children.

Farida Al Alloush, Syrian mother

The WFP estimates that 13 million people in the country, or more than half the population, are suffering from hunger. However, in 2024, the WFP was only able to assist 3.6 million people in Syria, a 49% decrease from the previous year, due to funding cuts. The organization warned a few weeks ago that without new funding, it will have to suspend food assistance to one million of those in need.

Nine out of 10 people in poverty

The father of Alaa al-Sayed, a four-year-old boy living in Maarat al-Numan, in southern Idlib, died in the war in 2023. This loss significantly diminished the family's resources, and hunger invaded their lives. Alaa's weight and height are well below average for his age, and the boy suffers from constant weakness and dizziness. A doctor examined him and determined it was due to hunger. "My son needs medication and nutritional supplements, but I can't afford to buy them because our financial situation has worsened after my husband's death," says his mother, Farida al-Alloush. "I work in the fields and earn three dollars a day (2.7 euros), which is not enough for our basic needs. So I have to borrow money from relatives to feed my children," she adds, explaining that sometimes they only manage to eat once a day, in the late afternoon.

Putting a plate of food on the table with all the necessary nutrients is a burden that too many families today cannot assume.

Ali Al Qassem, pediatrician

Chronic malnutrition causes irreversible damage to children's physical and cognitive development, impacting their learning capacity and productivity, with consequences that can affect them for the rest of their lives. "An entire generation of children in Syria is paying the price of war with their health, diminished by hunger, disease, poverty, and displacement," insists Ali al-Qassem, a pediatrician in Aleppo, northern Syria.

According to UNICEF, nine out of 10 people currently live below the poverty line. Nutrient deficiencies begin with breastfeeding, which is insufficient or interrupted due to conflict or poor nutrition among mothers, this doctor estimates. He also warns of the too-rapid introduction of cow's milk into infants' diets, which in many cases causes allergies, diarrhea, or anemia.

Dr. Hala Daoud, head of the Syrian Ministry of Health's nutrition program, agrees, explaining that many Syrian women suffer from malnutrition during pregnancy and lactation, which prevents a large percentage of them from breastfeeding their children, yet they also lack the financial means to buy powdered milk.

“Many people in Syria depend on humanitarian aid for food and lack vegetables, fruits, and meat in their meals. Putting a plate of food on the table with all the necessary nutrients is a burden that too many families cannot bear today,” Al Qassem concludes.