France repatriates French children and mothers from Syrian refugee camps

France has repatriated 35 French children and 16 mothers from refugee camps in the northeast of Syria, the foreign affairs ministry said on Tuesday.

The mothers have been handed over to judicial authorities and the children will undergo medical checks.

The Syrian civil war, which started with peaceful protests for democracy and spiralled into a brutal regime crackdown coupled with the rise of religious extremist groups, has resulted in a major humanitarian crisis.

The frontlines have been mostly frozen for years but violence is continuing and millions of people remain displaced within Syria's borders.

The UN human rights office said last month that 306,887 civilians had been killed in Syria during the conflict since 2011, about 1.5  percent of its pre-war population. 

Thousands of foreign nationals linked to the Islamic State group are still held in Syria in what Human Rights Watch has described as "inhuman or degrading conditions". 

[Reuters]