UNICEF: 2 children die in camp along Syria-Jordan border

BEIRUT – The United Nations’ children agency says two children have died in a desert camp for displaced people along the Syria-Jordan border.

UNICEF says the children died in the past 48 hours due to lack of medical care. The agency says a 5-day-old boy and a 4-month-old girl died in the squalid Rukban camp, which houses over 40,000 people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that Syrian government forces have cut off roads used for aid deliveries to Rukban, exacerbating the camp’s poor conditions.

The war-monitoring group says the blockade came after the failure of a rebel group to evacuate the camp according to deal reached earlier.

UNICEF says it has a clinic in Jordan near the border but that more sophisticated health care services are needed.