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Activists use Pokemon Go to put spotlight on Syrian kids in war

Syrian activists are using the world's fascination with the Pokemon Go craze to raise awareness of the plight of children in the country's war zones.

'We want everyone to put pressure on their governments to do something about this'

CBC News ·

Syrian activists are using the world's fascination with Pokemon Go to raise awareness of the plight of children in the country's war zones. 

A series of photos posted to social media shows Syrian children holding drawings of characters from the augmented reality mobile phone game along with their locations and the plea "come save me." 

The Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office — a group of media activists who support groups opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad — began posting the photos on Wednesday. 

Their posts have been retweeted hundreds of times, but the photos have spread far beyond on social media through reposts.

"We want to raise awareness and draw attention to the plight of Syrian children in besieged areas and the suffering of Syrian people who are attacked and killed by [the] Assad regime and its allies," the group's social media editor, Mahmod Abo Bakr, told NBC News.

The locations mentioned in the photos include the cities of Hama and Idlib, which are controlled by opposition forces and have experience years of civil war. 

Another photo states that the child is in Aleppo, a city controlled by the Assad government in the west and in the east by a combination of rebel groups.

Estimates of the death toll from Syria's six years of conflict range from 250,000 to 470,000. Almost half of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced by the war.

"We want everyone to put pressure on their governments to do something about this," Abo Bakr told NBC News.

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