Displacements From Syria’s Idlib Hit Record Levels
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UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations said Friday
that more than 140,000 civilians have been displaced from northwestern
Syria in just the last three days. An escalation in fighting across Idlib and Aleppo has pushed more
than 830,000 people to flee their homes since early December, causing
what the U.N. has said is the biggest humanitarian catastrophe since the
conflict started in 2011. Some 3 million people live in the province. “Women and children are among those that are suffering the most —
they make up about 81% of the recently displaced people,” U.N. spokesman
Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “Temperatures across northwest Syria
have been below freezing for several days, leaving families exposed to
increasingly harsh conditions.” Many of the displaced are moving north toward already overcrowded camps near the Syria-Turkey border. They are fleeing an escalation in fighting between the Syrian
military, which is backed by Russia and Iran, and Syrian armed
opposition groups, some of whom have Turkish support. The Syrian
government is trying to crush the last major opposition strongholds.
Syrian civilians flee from Idlib as Syrian troops wage
an offensive in the last rebel stronghold according to news reports,
Feb. 13, 2020.The situation worsened this
month when Syrian government forces killed 13 Turkish troops, provoking
Ankara to strike back, in some of the worst confrontations between the
neighbors since the conflict began nine years ago. The fighting, along a main highway, also has severely hindered food distribution. The World Food Program (WFP) and its partners were forced to
temporarily stop distribution this week because the fighting had
disrupted the movement of trucks carrying supplies into the area from
Turkey. “We are deeply concerned about the fate of thousands of families who
had to leave their homes in freezing winter temperatures in search for
safety in camps that are already overcrowded,” WFP regional director
Muhannad Hadi said in a statement. “In Syria, civilians continue to pay
the price for the ongoing conflict.” In New York, the European Union members of the U.N. Security Council requested a closed-door meeting on the situation. “We demand that the parties, especially the Syrian regime and its
allies, immediately end their military offensive, establish a genuine
and lasting cease-fire, guarantee the protection of civilians and fully
adhere to international humanitarian law,” Estonia’s Ambassador Sven
Jurgenson said on behalf of France, Germany, Poland and Belgium. “We
call for a sustainable cease-fire and call upon the U.N. and the special
envoy in particular to spare no efforts in this regard.” U.N. Syria envoy Geir Pedersen is in Germany this week for the Munich
Security Conference. He is due to brief council members next Wednesday.
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