(CNN) Children are suffering in the latest escalation in the nine-year Syrian civil war as civilians face a bleak choice — leave for a life of misery in overcrowded makeshift camps or die.

Those are the only options as the Syrian government and its Russian backers pummel the more than 3 million civilians stuck in the last opposition enclave in northwestern Syria.

"The crisis in northwest Syria is turning into a child protection crisis of unprecedented scale. Violence over the past week has forced 6,500 children to flee every day," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on Saturday.

UNICEF estimates that more than 300,000 have been displaced since December and that 1.2 million children are in desperate need.

Children carry jugs to fill with water in the Washukanni camp for internally displaced people in northeastern Syria.

Mohammad, an 11-year-old who loves to study and hopes to grow up to be a teacher, is one of those children. He was forced to flee with his family after a barrel bomb destroyed half of his home in the town of Saraqib in Idlib province. Now, he and the family live in squalid conditions in a muddy field with open sewage and barely any clean running water

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