On what it says is a shocking scale. Im Richelle Carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up i know is not there is no treatment available for me i have nothing no medicine no money. On the medical evacuations underway from war torn syria or too little too late. Women are a results expected on thursday in liberias president ial election runoff between soccer legend george way to and Vice President joseph. Hundreds of Prisoners Exchange in ukraine and one of the biggest swaps agreed to between moscow and kiev. The u. N. Is warning that children in conflict zones all around the world are under attack on what it calls a shocking scale and a unicef report says children have become front line targets and are often used as human shields as mayor recruited to fight and enslavement have become standard tactics the conflict in yemen was one of the worst for children in two thousand and seventeen with five thousand killed or injured your agency is calling on all sides in conflicts highlighted in this report to abide by International Law and stop targeting children schools and hospitals and reports. When youre in the moderate refugee camp in lebanons eastern because valley is not easy. Last year for several months shelters which are made out of bits of wood and plastic sheeting were blanketed in snow warm clothes are often in short supply and fuel can be expensive or hard to find. Really to help vulnerable refugees prepare for the cold temperatures the u. S. Refugee Agency Offers cash and other assistance to those who most need it so far around six hundred fifty thousand refugees have received some form of help but many others are still doing without they need more c one in winter to keep warm the blankets they need more food they need medicine because of the diseases that spread more easily in the winter season. According to the u. N. H. C. R. More than three point eight million refugees and internally displaced people in syria lebanon iraq turkey jordan and egypt need winter assistance a Cold Weather Program which began last month is aimed at helping the most vulnerable families they receive a mixture of cash assistance Building Materials to repair and weatherproof shelters and winter items including thermal blankets gas heaters and warm clothes but of the two hundred twenty eight Million Dollars needed to finance this years Winter Program so far only one hundred forty three Million Dollars has been received a shortfall of nearly forty percent today we are facing funding shortfalls which forces you and other aid agencies to target the assistance that we are able to deliver to the families who are most in need the poorest of the poor unfortunately we know that many other families who are also in need do not have access to this assistance today and while Syrian Refugees and internally displaced children face another winter away from their homes according to unicef children have been used as human shields trapped under siege targeted by snipers and lived through intense bombardment and violence unicef is demanding all parties involved in the fighting abide by International Laws so that children like bees dont have to suffer in. Zero. Theres a fourth i think forsyth is the deputy executive director of unicef he says children are increasingly being fran into conflict what weve seen in recent years and even more so in twenty seven is children being deliberately targeted i mean weve heard stories from our staff on the ground in bangladesh but also in mean maurice south about wrecking the children whove stood by us soldiers of right on their mothers have shot their father even brutalized those children the cells and theyre saying to those children theyre deliberately doing this we have stories from within syria and from a school that we worked in with snipers deliberately targeting the children in the playground i was in Northern Nigeria recently and i met children who would who had to talk to me about being forced to be on human bombs for boquete her arms and this deliberately targeting of children to make them part of the conflict to brutalize army is a is a is a new development yes its always happened in part but it seems to be growing and growing is normal now that you can target a hospital a group of doctors in syria told me recently when i was in northern turkey how the armed groups wouldnt even come near the hospital because the hospital was more of a target than the armed groups so hospitals and schools are being deliberately attacked children are being brutalized and it feels like all the rules in war as you say that used to at least protect civilians and children in particular in these terrible wars have all disappeared and feels like there are no rules to protect the most Vulnerable Children in these conflicts and our appeal is unicef is to all the warring parties whether their governments or rebel groups is it surely we can all agree that we need to protect the children. Aid workers have begun evacuating critically ill patients from eastern go into the rebel held area under siege in syrias capital damascus for some including children treatments come too late. Holder has this report which includes some pictures viewers may find distressing its a start but its not enough only a handful of east scooters critically ill are being allowed to leave to hospitals in damascus which is less than an hours drive away twenty nine patients the majority of them women and children a six month old baby was on that list but when the aide workers reached those house they found out she died weeks ago the Syrian Government is allowing them to be treated outside the besieged opposition stronghold after the armed group. Agreed to release some government prisoners its not clear if new deals will be reached it has been four years since east hooter was besieged by the syrian army the siege has tightened in recent months there are according to the United Nations almost five hundred Urgent Medical cases. Man has brain cancer she says her condition is only deteriorating the u. N. Says more than a dozen people have already died while waiting to be evacuated for treatment i know there is no treatment available for me here i have nothing no medicine no money im just waiting for gods mercy its not just the lack of medical supplies there is a lack of food the United Nations says the area is experiencing the worst case of child malnutrition since the start of the conflict and. The lack of medical equipment of vaccines have affected children also they are malnourished and this has that to a number of diseases unfortunately that children are facing in dire conditions. There have been three reported deaths because of malnutrition in the past two months. Well not even two months old when they died the u. N. Says more than one thousand five hundred children are at risk among them two hundred thirty two who are acutely malnourished more than four hundred thousand people. Are believed to be children just under siege. Despite the russian guaranteed deescalation that was supposed to have. In september aid reached the area for the first time in months but it was only enough for forty thousand people there is suffering in this region and the fear is that the worst is yet to come the government is using this siege and starvation tactic as a military strategy and as the situation worsens the likelihood of a surrender becomes more real. Syrian. Government forces supplies are running short with the access to international. More. Its under siege the basic necessities of life here are in short supply through the hardships locals are learning to improvise with what little they have. Here at this makeshift tailor shop blankets and old clothes are given new life. Over the years of war life is getting tougher and harsher residents come to me with the blankets handed out to them by the relief agencies to tailor them. To be made out of the blankets others ask for jackets or even pajamas. But its still not enough the u. N. Has struggled to get aid into besieged areas but agencies complaining of overwhelming challenges to access after five years under siege locals are getting desperate. These blankets are handed out to us to use to keep warm but residents here cannot afford to buy fuel or a daily meal they are forced to make out of blankets and they wear them day and night in this cold winter people here are fed up. Its just one of many besieged areas in syria where tens of thousands of people are struggling to survive and with little help coming from the outside world the people of all will have to continue to find ways to fend for themselves into monohan aljazeera by various Election Commission its expected to announce official pulmonary results on the president ial runoff on thursday former soccer star george away it claims hes on track for victory but as opponent president joseph says its too close to call. Reports in the capital monrovia. Liberia unsweet for the outcome of tuesdays Runoff Election many place what they call a peaceful vote vote counting is underway and the process of telling results trickling in from all them five thousand polling stations across liberia why the national may show up early has been. There were. Very small number of incidents to report where the incident occurred and i should mention they have been dealt with on his part in most of these cases if not all the contest pits fifty one year old former football star where against seventy three year old joseph walk i who has been the countrys Vice President for the last twelve years but falling coincided with christmas and many chose to stay home observers say the tunnel close much lower than the fuss round held in october delatour Commission Says it will announce the results in four days its what happens often whether the losing side will accept defeat that has most liberians concerned. Liberia is one when its willing to destroy the women and that will mean for us to go back to war for anybody to be president of this country and we will not do it we are going to have peace is children of this country need peace and they also want peace and were going to call for whom ever we decide is president of Liberia International observers to a calling for calm so one person was with that person. Because we all knew this. So the issue is now when you know. If you when you celebrate is celebrating or should be because you go to the president of everybody if you lose you also. For the first time in more than seventy years this was founded by freed american slaves will see one democratically elected government power to another whoever wins will inherit tonic or me but by forming prices of liberias main exports of rabat and i dont want to force depreciating currency in the past twelve years Ellen Johnson sirleaf has guided this country through the process of recovery from civil war on the horrors of a bull outbreak but you too has been criticized for not doing much to talk all poverty and corruption in hog government have it all does it or monrovia liberia still ahead on aljazeera ill tell you why more and more people in argentina are relying on food donations just to survive plus. Im wayne hay reporting from thailand where the military government says democracy will return at the end of two thousand and eighteen but well tell you why many believe it wont happen. Hell i would chain of weather systems will start to march through the levant now i suspect you see some cloudy in coming through on this satellite picture looks fairly benign i think it probably will be develop a few showers with no more than mostly just high in the sky twenty in beirut six in aleppo still above where it might be expected to be terror and about right for average and its bit warmer maybe than you might expect in baghdad in kuwait but not very much weve seen higher temperatures not recently if anything there might be creeping up an indication once again of feeding the wind up from the sas still seventy in jerusalem twenty one in beirut in the sunshine most likely otherwise not much going on here to be honest dropping sas on the fairly stiff breeze is going to die down i think going to the gulf twenty three or twenty four seems likely in doha clear blue skies the most part of it dusty every now and again warm on the western side which is fairly normal for any time they had to be honest but notable now to south africa the weather is fairly benign there are showers at the eastern cape and beyond durban because you could be caught by some warm sunny johannesburg and also in most of botswana the big pall of cloud to the south of that from angola through zambia toward southern towns near this is the line where showers could be persistent pretty heavy. Witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on aljazeera. Rushing out to syria lets take a look at the top stories right now a new report by unicef warns that children in conflict zones all around the world are under attack on a shocking scale the report highlights the deaths of children over the past year in afghanistan child suicide bombers linked to boko rom and at least five thousand killed or injured in the war in yemen aid workers have started vaccinating critically ill patients from eastern. In syrias capital damascus last month the u. N. Call for five hundred people in need of Urgent Medical care be allowed to leave only twenty nine cases have been given approval and at least eighteen people died while waiting. Results in liberias president ial runoff are expected on thursday former football star george way it says hes on track to be the successor to outgoing president Ellen Johnson sirleaf the Vice President joseph camp says its still too close to call. The cranium government rebels have completed a swap of hundreds of prisoners of war torn Eastern Ukraine the exchange took place near the city of go which is mainly controlled by separatists the swap is said to be the biggest since the conflict began in two thousand and fourteen or a challenge has more from moscow. But both sides are now confirmed that this prisoner swap has concluded with people being handed in both directions across the front lines in Eastern Ukraine the numbers that actually did see the lines a big difference from the earlier advertize figures of three hundred six people going from kiev territory but to the east and seventy four people going from the eastern regions back into kiev territory the reasons why the numbers are different is because some people were transferred earlier some people on both sides it seems didnt actually get want to go back to where they come from this is. And events that has been quite a long time in the making the final impetus though came as a recent meeting in moscow that was attended by the heads of the two separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine by the head of the Russian Orthodox church Patrick Carroll and by representatives from kiev but the the real political will it seems has come from both kiev and also from moscow with Vladimir Putin saying that he was going to use his influence with the with the separatist regions to make it happen its a breakthrough undeniably a step in the right direction and the sides now were talking about keeping this going theyre doing more prisoner swaps but while people are still dying while moscow is still supplying the rebel regions with weapons and hardware etc and while there doesnt seem to be a final drive for peace this is just a step in that direction we havent got to the destination that we want to get yet which is a final political solution the outbreak at the sick a virus two years ago now caused a Global Health emergency many cases were in the northeast of brazil where the illness was linked to an increase in babies born with a condition that severely limited their development now those children are toddlers in the extent of their Health Problems its becoming painfully clear that if John Heilemann reports from received a parent say they are getting a little help from the government. Two years after the see care but there mick brazil and the world has moved on but niger and elise a still here. Is one of almost three thousand babies who were born with microcephaly and underdeveloped head and brain cools. The majority likely say were in the north east of the country now were now just zero first visited receive thing in two thousand and sixteen and i just said the government was yet for them lets whats changed ali as you know the government. Assistance for a few families i know some of them in my case ive never received anything its been more than two years and we havent got a thing. He leases medicine is so expensive the familys income cant cover it they have to rely on donations from friends nigerian nurses have around the clock but her conditions getting worse ive seen the mill caught up in the morning i dont have too much hope from the bottom of my heart is hard for a mother to say that but i can imagine allison ten years time in fifteen years time i dont dream about it that is why i like to make things happen today. As it is. Elise a and others ecosoc to children and receive faith receive free rehabilitation from a foundation partly funded by the government but its overwhelmed one hundred fifty is stuck on the waiting list all the time getting deeper amazed in the semi blindness and muscle stiffness that typifies the condition was to me live in two to says they need more funds we try not to let people forget about seeka and because you know we still have all these children and we still have a burden and its and its involves the government but also a public health. Issue that has to be addressed and never forgotten the government says that it hasnt forgotten as well as engaging in a Massive Campaign to eradicate the mosquito which carries you seek