The hell of Rake in the eyes of children

Three full years after the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IDIL) occupied large parts of the territory of Syria and Iraq and imposed terror on the population in their strongholds, Raqqa in northern Syria, which was reputed to be the de facto capital of this terrorist group, is fleeing children who have already survived hell, say humanitarian organizations.

Save the Children says that after years of living under ISIS, children are now exposed to a round-the-clock bombing campaign by Syrian-Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by the United States.

Half of the estimated 20.000 people stuck in Raqqa, where ISIS militants are still resisting an offensive on their de facto capital, are children, United Nations officials said.

Those children who managed to escape the hell of ISIL describe their experiences as "absolutely terrifying".

UN official Fran Equiza visited three camps in northern Syria last week where he met with children from Raqqa and Deir el-Zor, which is also controlled by ISIL.

"I was completely shocked. Ten thousand children are stuck in Raka in extremely horrible conditions. No electricity, no water, probably very little food and fighting is going on every day," said Equiza.

Syrian-Arab and Kurdish forces backed by the US-led international coalition have surrounded the ISIL stronghold and fighting is intensifying on all sides, as thousands of civilians struggle to escape as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has planted mines all around the city. which is under constant shelling.

"The level of suffering experienced by children who lose parents, relatives, friends is absolutely terrifying," says a representative of UNICEF.

On Friday, Eqiza appealed to all parties in the conflict to provide a safe corridor for the exit of civilians, "especially children who are not responsible for anything that is happening".

The situation, he warned, will worsen because, in addition to Raqqa, an increasing number of civilians are fleeing from the eastern province of Deir el-Zor, where the Syrian army and allied militias are also on the offensive against ISIS.

The international organization for the protection of children, Save the Children, also announced today that the Raka bombing campaign has intensified the "nightmare" that children in Raka have been facing for three years.

The children of Raqqa may appear normal at first glance, but many of them live in the hell of what they have seen," said the organization's Syria director Sonia Khush.

"The children of Raqqa do not talk about nightmares and the memory of how their loved ones died before their eyes. We risk condemning an entire generation of children to suffering for life if we do not deal with their mental health," added the director of the Syrian branch of Save the Children.

Save the Children warns that it will take decades for young people to overcome psychological problems due to the hell they have survived and witnessed.

Raqqa was occupied by ISIS militants in the middle of 2014, when they almost simultaneously took control of large parts of the territory of Iraq and Syria and declared the so-called caliphate, with Raqqa as the capital of the caliphate.

The offensive on Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, which was also an IS stronghold, ended after months of fighting between Iraqi forces and US-backed allied militias.

In Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish forces, have surrounded Raqqa and are preparing for a final offensive, with US air support.

On the other hand, 20.000 people, half of them children, are still stuck behind the lines with ISIL, which is trying to prevent them from leaving the city ahead of the final offensive.