screening programme, so that zolgensma can be given in the first weeks of life, long before symptoms appear. fergus walsh, bbc news. in the decade since mass protests in syria turned into violent conflict, the number killed in the war has always been contested. united nations officials admit they don t now know the true number but today one human rights group in the uk say it could be around half a million. more than 6 million syrians are now refugees. over the past few years, our correspondent caroline hawley has followed the lives of two children ? casualties of the conflict who escaped to neighbouring jordan. she s been back to meet theirfamilies. mustafa and his little sister, douaa, survived a bombing raid by the syrian regime seven years ago. both their parents were killed in the explosion that nearly took his life, too.
events and there has been some kind of delay. the bureaucratic bungle means it will be weeks at least before he can fly. rahaf and mustafa don t know each other, but they d recognise each other s pain. when she was three, her home in syria was hit by government shelling, setting her bedclothes on fire. her sister 0amar s burns were more severe. in 2012, we filmed qamar having surgery on herface. she had so many operations over the years, so many medical procedures, herfamily have literally lost count. rahaf herself has had 12, one for every year of her life.
rahaf and mustafa don t know each other, but they d recognise each other s pain. when she was three, her home in syria was hit by government shelling, setting her bedclothes on fire. her sister qamar s burns were more severe. in 2012, we filmed qamar having surgery on herface. she had so many operations over the years, so many medical procedures, herfamily have literally lost count. rahaf herself has had 12, one for every year of her life, but nothing she s been through can match the agony of losing her sister, who was also her best friend. this was the last photo taken of qamar before she got ill last year with an infection her body couldn t fight.
for mustafa, there s still a new life in australia to look forward to, but that small piece of shrapnel buried in his brain that causes him so much trouble will be with him wherever he goes. caroline hawley, bbc news, amman. some of the young victims of the syrian conflict, caroline hawley reporting, there. let s take a look at some of today s other news. a post mortem examination has found that sarah everard, who disappeared in march while walking home in south london, died from compression to her neck. the body of the 33 year old was found in woodland in kent a week after she disappeared. a serving metropolitan police officer, wayne couzens, has been charged with her kidnap and murder. the inquest into the death of usman khan, the convicted terrorist who killed two young people at fishmongers hall in london in 2019, has heard that he was shot 20 times by armed police before he died. khan, who d been allowed to attend
mustafa broke both his hips and still has shrapnel in his brain, which doctors have told him they can t remove. we first met mustafa when he was five. over the years, the one thing that s never changed is his irrepressible smile. right now, mustafa has good reason to be happy. he and douaa and their grandmother are about to be given a new home on the other side of the world. there s time for a last play with his cousins before he goes.