Photos have emerged of Syrian children holding pictures of Pokemon characters, in the hopes that the world will find them and save them.

After five years of civil war, which has seen hundreds of thousands die and millions to flee their homes, the population left behind are suffering.  And now, images of young children asking to be saved are circulating on the Internet.

Syrian children holding Pokemon photos in hopes the world will find them and save them.#Syria #SyriaBombing pic.twitter.com/red3kCuSqq

— Sedat Gündüz (@cptsdt) July 21, 2016

One of the signs reads, ‘I am Kafr Nabl on the outskirts of Idlib, come and save me.’ All the children are in different towns.

For many of us who regularly hear stories on the news about bombs, suicide attacks and starving civilians, it’s easy to become desensitized from the trauma faced by these children and their families.

So to try to capture public attention, a group of Syrian activists have decided to spread their message with the help of Pokemon Go. As one Twitter user described, “it’s the Pokemon game you have not seen before”.

#PrayForSyria I am from #Syria come to save me!!! pic.twitter.com/lRbSlGsWrB — إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) July 20, 2016

The photos have been posted by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office (RFS), who are working to challenge the regime of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assasd. The Turkey-based media organisation told The Independent, “With the media spread wide for Pokemon game we decided to publish these images to highlight the suffering of the Syrian people.”

“We want to raise awareness and draw attention to the plight of Syrian children in besieged areas and the suffering of Syrian people who are attacked and killed by the Assad regime and its allies.”

The images have been circulated over 20,000 times.

The images work as a reality check, and were published after over 50 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed by Russian air strikes. Unicef estimates there are 35,000 children still trapped in and around the northern Syrian city where the air strikes hit.

The RFS spokesperson said that ultimately, "The Syrian children are paying the price for the international inaction to stop the Assad killing machine."