this is v.w. news live from berlin the syrian government's onslaught i think rebel held damascus suburbs intensifies mortars and missiles rained down on eastern cute without mercy killing nearly three hundred people including at least fifty children according to monitors hospitals overwhelmed the struggle to cope with a big siege area home to some four hundred thousand people. also coming up calling for change students in the u.s. state of florida demand tougher gun control laws as they say in the wake of last

week's deadly school shooting but can they problem makers to act. i'm sara kelly welcome to the program no words left the united nations children's agency describes the suffering of civilians in a rebel held suburb of damascus as beyond what words are capable of expressing with airstrikes pounding eastern go to again today independent monitors say that more than two hundred seventy people have been killed since sunday it's not the first time that gupta has come under attack back in two thousand and thirteen the government allegedly bombed it with chemical weapons and we want to warn you that you may find the images in this next report upsetting. if you ask me. for a war that's been raging for nearly seven years the image is

a new less shocking and no less harrowing. this boy's parents face is unknown and watch will become of him. in towns already reduced to shells any hospital still standing is completely overwhelmed. since sunday the syrian government's reportedly aided by russian forces has stepped up its bombardment of this rebel long place with little regard for those who inhabit it. and. i say. ok.

and still the fighter jets keep coming if what happened in homs in aleppo is anything to go by they were installed until there's no one left those who survived this being starved in their own homes. and the result of the situation is getting worse and people are forced to stay on their grounds to avoid the shelling on able to go on to the streets or whatever's left of them to collect or buy food. world leaders condemned the syrian government but that comes as little consolation to the people of eastern pizza where actions have far more facts than just words on a little from now on the people in the world on the interim or on the situation there let's bring in now and also mum says he is the u.n. humanitarian coordinator for the syria crisis and we thank you so much for joining us this evening from kuwait. thank you thank you for being here now how does it we've just seen images of horrific conditions there in eastern we'd like you to

describe to us according to the information that you have what is happening to civilians there the situation for civilians is really beyond imagination this humanitarian situation is spiraling completely out of control. the protection of civilians has become extremely difficult basically there's been multiple it's hard. battle bombs that hold minutes apart in different locations of the ease with going claves where four hundred thousand people are living and whose life in the last few days has become impossible is what has been besieged these two thousand and thirty and we have not been able to take any convoy since the twenty eighth of november with the exception of one small i mean several. there's no electricity there is no water markets everything is going to a complete halt we've had no multiple hospitals that have been attacked bombed

where you know how facilities this is you know turn constitutes a war crime where houses that is. inside hundreds of deaths it's an area that has become hell on earth is really very very difficult for the people who live inside and we know that many other organizations including amnesty international have also raised the specter of war crimes in this specific incident and we also know that this area has been under government siege for a year is and has suffered an alleged chemical attack back in two thousand and thirteen the assad regime really seeming to be relentless hair what do you think will happen to these people. well we hope that once you know that was scenario at least the lip was and i would say place again because i think this is really i mean forceful for all of us that for the protection of the civilians the military option is the one that has the most devastating impact on people's lives and. you

know even these children who go through this plane an aerial bombardment twenty unique about this is the fact that is one it's one of the four deescalation areas or so called the escalation saves all of that was established and if anything really we have become an escalation an area where we have seen a significant increase of hostilities from our side as united nations were asking is for a cease fire agreements are imposed political east thirty days which would allow us to bring in food and medical supplies also the. cases of medical evacuations east of water is ten miles down the road from down central damascus so the moment we have hundreds of medical cases that need to be taken to hospital and they cannot because of lack of media permission to go where the hospital is just a ten miles drive is easily solved so close to it. and of course to be able to

be alleviated already with return convoys to be able to take them in when we need the permission to do so and i talk of the security council. and us i'm so sorry for interrupting you there and we just have have a couple of moments left on but you know you mentioned there that you're not only involved on the humanitarian side but also lead to a matic side and so i'd like to ask you you started to talk about the security council there in new york do you think that the world will ever say enough is enough and really take resolute action to bring this campaign to an end do you see any hope on the horizon. this is the question we're not asking ourselves we have had no seven year seven years of the relentless war in syria with hundreds of thousands of dead displays millions of people the light hearted people are our displays sort far that hasn't been this one moment you say that was its early going to bring everybody together into with useful solution there is it use it go susan

loosening draft we hope it will last this week too previous this fire is still being discussed that this is the moment where we reduce our of the world really need to be thinking of the form in which every pressure that concentrated change channels mum says un humanitarian coordinator for the syria crisis is joining us this evening from kuwait with the very latest on these reports from eastern go to a couple hundred reported dead there we thank you so much for joining us this evening. now to florida where several thousand protesters have gathered in front of the state capitol in tallahassee to demand stronger control on firearms leading the protest were students from the marjorie stoneman douglas high school the parkland florida school where a gunman killed seventeen people last week and on tuesday lawmakers defeated a bill to ban assault style weapons like the one used in the parkland shooting but they're debating making it more difficult to obtain such weapons in florida. and

earlier we spoke with louis mizen a survivor of the school massacre who traveled to tallahassee and we asked him whether he thought he and his classmates would be able to get politicians to do something about the gun violence. i think you know you can all look around with the next generation of voters and the next generation of leaders i think the the way we agree has really shown that we we will be a strong generation of leaders on that we all willing to make change we're the first real generation in columbine we've grown up with these mass shootings in school and that's a legacy that's been left to us and we want a legacy to be fixing that and changing that and i really have hope for the future that we can go on and we can make this a national issue and it's always a whole topic in american politics but i really believe that we can be the people who brings it up and makes politicians talk about it and hopefully bring change across the country well now we had to nigeria where scores of teenage girls are

reported missing following an attack by the extremist group boko haraam is a missed insurgents attacked a school in a village in the northeastern state of you know be earlier this week boko haram carried out a similar mass abduction in the town of to back in two thousand and fourteen with true which drew international attention to the nine year insurgency in the region. and correspondent krishna's standing by in lagos for more on the story. what can you tell us about the teenage girls that have gone missing. so the problem is that the region where it happened is a very rural so although the incident happened on monday evening we still don't have a lot of information about it because it's very difficult to access the area for journalists what we know so far is as i said is that the attack happened on monday evening a legit book with around members came to the school and from what we learned is

that most of the students first had the impression that they just came to steal food stuff too to fill up their own supplies we talked to one of the girls earlier today on the phone who was in the school during that time and she actually told us that a lot of her fellow students tried to run away they climbed the fences ran into the bush but she also saw some of them who goods to pick up trucks were parked in front of the school because they thought that security operators apparently it's a high risk that those where the pickup trucks off boko haram fighters and they drove off with them so today the police came up with a number for the first time they said it is one hundred eleven students that are unaccounted for they've basically counted all of the about nine hundred students who were supposed to be at the school and one hundred and eleven are missing according to the police according to the state government however it is only fifty missing so there's still a lot of confusion but the key question here is right now those ones who are missing did they run away are they still hiding in the bush where they carried away

by boko haram and this is a question we cannot answer right now absolutely so many outstanding questions and of course one thinks about the chip books school girls that case back in two thousand and fourteen when two hundred seventy girls were abducted by boko haram many of them still missing we have to mention and it sounds like this does bear similar hallmarks to that case doesn't it. and. is unfortunately is does especially of the slow response by the government back then it was not president who was in power he was back then in the opposition and he heavily criticized. former government for the slow response when the chibok of duction happened it's took them days even weeks to acknowledge what's happened and to come out with the facts and the way forward now he's in charge and charge and once again we see a very slow response today is wednesday the thing happened on monday it's not even clear how many of the girls are missing it is not clear if they were kidnapped or

not so this is something that president will really has to react on now. and then just tell us briefly before we go the hari has promised to bring the boko haram insurgency to an end but what it's changed since two thousand and fifteen well since he is in power the military indeed managed to regain a lot of the territories that boko haram used to occupy before but he said the group is technically defeated he has been saying that many times and it's simply not true we still see suicide as suicide attacks we still see a lot of things happening in the northeast and if the attack from monday turns out to be really in that direction by boko haram it's yet another sign that the group is not defeated and there is thank you. in lagos thank you. in other news gunmen have killed five police officers and an off duty soldier in an attack on

a police station in south africa police say that the gunman entered the building in the early morning and opened fire before stealing weapons in a vehicle the country's police minister called it a national tragedy. and police in peru say that at least thirty six people were killed when a double decker bus veered off of a mountain road and tumbled two hundred meters down a cliff in the country south at least thirty others were injured the cause of the accident wasn't immediately known. and finally now before we go a success story from the u.k. their wildlife rescuers say that they are delighted to have released a very special seal back into the wild she was found last september injured and skinny with a first piece stuck around her neck now it's been a long road and it has taken a lot of fish dinners but now the seal is back to the size that she should be and back in the sea. where she's the. look at her go there.

and with so much bad news in the world we really like happy endings like that with that you're up to date now on c w news i'm sarah kelly in berlin don't forget as always you can find us on social media at t w news i'm sarah kelly thanks so much for watching i hope to see you again soon take care. where i come from we had to fly in for a free phrase i was born and raised in the military dictatorship with just one t.v. shadow and a few news papers with official information as attorneys work over the streets of many cantors lives.