Photo of Drowned Syrian Refugee Boy Goes Viral
A photograph of a Syrian refugee child who drowned and was found face down on the shore of a Turkish resort has gone viral on social media.
Aylan Kurdi, 3, died with eleven other Syrian refugees, including his 5-year-old brother, as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos, a stopping point for many refugees seeking asylum elsewhere in Europe, according to the Guardian.
Some 15,000 refugees are currently waiting on the island of Lesbos, including 2,500 Syrians who arrived on Wednesday. More than 4 million Syrians have become refugees during the ongoing civil war in their homeland, according to the U.N.
Grabbing international headlines, the image has circulated widely on Facebook and Twitter.
Water Remains Scarce in Aleppo
Access to water remains a challenge for residents of Aleppo, a city divided between the control of the Syrian government and rebel groups. The city’s 2 million residents depend on water from several different pumping stations, yet each of those is controlled by different parties to the conflict.
“Vital services for the people, such as the water supply, must be kept away from the politics of the Syrian conflict,” Marianne Gasser, head of the International Committee for Red Cross (Syria delegation), recently said, as Al Jazeera reports.
“Too often in Syria, water becomes a tool in the hands of fighting parties. It becomes a weapon of war. And it is civilians who suffer the most. Access to water should be unconditional,” Gasser added.
In July, UNICEF announced a three-week-long lack of clean water. During that period, 41 percent of children who visited the UNICEF-affiliated clinics were suffering from acute diarrhea.
Deadly Blast Strikes Latakia
The coastal city of Latakia, a political stronghold for President Bashar al-Assad, has been struck by a fatal car bombing that left at least 10 people dead and 25 injured. The explosion took place outside of a school on the city’s outskirts, the BBC reports.
Latakia, home to a large population of Assad’s Alawite sect, has largely been shielded from the violence gripping the country. Since March 2011, more than 240,000 people have died, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Yet in recent months an Islamist rebel alliance – including Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian arm of al-Qaida – has been advancing steadily in the coastal region near Latakia.
The car bombing was “the biggest car bomb attack in Latakia since the war began,” the BBC adds.
Photo: A Syrian refugee boy attempts to warm himself up as he waits outside a train station in northern Greece. (Associated Press/Giannis Papanikos)
Recommended Reads
- Human Rights Watch: Why I Shared a Horrific Photo of a Drowned Syrian Child
- The Washington Post: Russia’s Involvement in Syria Might Be Ramping Up
- The Guardian: Banned Cluster Bombs ‘Used in Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan, Libya’
- The New York Times: Brutal Images of Syrian Boy Drowned off Turkey Must Be Seen, Activists Say