New York, 28 May – The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict condemns in the harshest terms the killing of 49 children in the village of El-Houleh in Syria on Friday. All children were under the age of 10.

SRSG Coomaraswamy welcomes the Security Council’s condemnation of the incident and calls on the Syrian authorities to promptly investigate the circumstances that led to the killings. “The perpetrators of these horrendous crimes in El-Houleh must be held accountable.” 

The United Nations Observers witnessed the dead bodies of the children on Saturday. In addition to these killings, around 300 men, women and children were wounded.

For more information, please contact:

Muriel Gschwend
Associate Communications Officer
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
Tel: +1 347 749 5276
gschwend@un.org