Syrian campaigners use Pokémon Go to ask world to save war children

One of the image tweeted with the #PokemoninSyria hashtag by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office. Photograph: @RFS_mediaoffice

A campaign involving children in Syrian villages has latched on to the Pokémon Go craze, asking gamers in the west to take a break from their frenzied hunt for digital creatures to turn their attention to young people trapped in war zones.

Several children have been photographed holding up printouts with popular Pokémon characters, a location in the heart of Syria and a message to “come save me”.

#PrayForSyria#RFS
انقذوا #الطفولة في #سوريا!! pic.twitter.com/vEE86mPKSH

— إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) July 20, 2016

The pictures were shared by an online news service, the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office. It did not respond to requests for comment on the origins of the photos or organisers of the campaign.

#PrayForSyria
Save me !! I am in #Syria pic.twitter.com/26Tg5RUuUn

— إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) July 20, 2016

The locations given are near the cities of Hama and Idlib, which have seen years of heavy fighting and aerial bombardment and are currently held by forces opposed to the president, Bashar al-Assad.

#PrayForSyria
I am from Kafer-Nabodah #Hama #Syria come & save me !! #PokemonGo pic.twitter.com/fUEMFGPm1s

— إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) July 20, 2016

Another image shows a child next to a weeping superimposed Pikachu in a bombed-out building, as if it were a screenshot from the actual game.

#PrayForSyria
I am from #Syria come to save me!!! pic.twitter.com/lRbSlGsWrB

— إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) July 20, 2016

Pokémon Go’s augmented reality technology projects digital creatures on to the streets around a player as viewed on a smartphone.

It has proved enormously popular, sometimes dangerously so as players staring at their screens have paid little heed to the real world they are moving through.

Players in Bosnia have been urged to avoid areas littered with unexploded mines left over from the 1990s conflict, and Indonesian police detained a French man who trespassed on a military base while playing the game.

There have been a string of reports of less dramatic problems across America: one woman got stuck in a tree in a New Jersey cemetery, a Baltimore man drove into a police car, and a man in New Hampshire was robbed at knifepoint.

The game’s popularity has also provoked religious controversy, with Saudi Arabia’s top clerical body reviving a 2001 religious edict prohibiting Pokémon.