21, Feb 2018 | CJP Team

The United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, issued a blank statement in response to widespread casualties among Syrian children in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta and capital Damascus, Reuters reported. The statement was from Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and Africa. It said, “No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones,” followed by ten empty lines with quotation marks to indicate absent text. “UNICEF is issuing this blank statement. We no longer have the words to describe children’s suffering and our outrage,” the statement said, adding, “Do those inflicting the suffering still have words to justify their barbaric acts?” Eastern Ghouta has been under siege by forces on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for several years; it is home to nearly 400,000 civilians. This year has seen an escalation in attacks on the area. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100 people were killed in Eastern Ghouta due to air raids, rocket strikes and shelling on Monday, February 19, 2018, Reuters reported.