Make your voice heard for Syrian children

Footage of the barefooted five-year-old boy Omran Daqneesh sitting on ambulance seat, covered in dust and bleeding from a head-wound — which can be viewed on the internet — is a sickening reminder of the horror of war. The boy is so traumatised that he does not even cry when he is left alone in the ambulance.

The real tragedy is that people on the ground are dealing with such cases every day. There are around 250,000 people still in Aleppo, and a spokesperson for UNICEF estimates that about 100,000 of those are children.

International opinion was shocked and outraged last year by the photograph of the body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a Turkish beach. There was a brief outcry.

This week Médecins Sans Frontières has decided to withdraw its medical services from six hospitals in northern Yemen as a result of Saudi bombing of hospital facilities four times in the past year. This is in contravention of UN resolution affording protected space to medical facilities.

Such stories are a reminder of how lucky we are in this country. No doubt every decent person loathes such reports, but our sympathy is just an empty gesture unless our government takes a humanitarian stand.

People can make a difference by insisting that the Government reflects our horror and revulsion on the international stage.