As many as 120,000 people arrived in Syria’s north after they had been displaced from their homes over the past two months. Activists said that the suffering of the new arrivals continued after they arrived in shelters and camps in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib due to shortages of humanitarian assistance.
Relief organizations are expecting the arrival of more displaced people from northern Homs over the next few days, coinciding with new mass forced displacement operations being carried out by the Assad regime and its allies.
The mass forced displacement followed military operations by the Assad regime, backed by Russian and Iranian militias, in Damascus and its suburbs as well as in northern rural Homs and southern rural Hama. The Assad regime used all kinds of weapons to force the people out of their land and homes, including barrel bombs filled with incendiary substances and chemical weapons.
Emergency response coordinators in northern Syria on Thursday said that 118,292 people arrived from Damascus and its countryside and northern Homs from 14 March to May 15.
The coordinators indicated that 83,214 people arrived from Damascus and its suburbs following the mass forced displacement of residents of the rebel-held areas in southern Damascus, eastern Ghouta, and eastern Qalamoun. Around 35,078 people have so far arrived coming from northern rural Homs in central Syria, they added.
The Syrian Coalition said that the Assad regime, Russia and Iran’s mass forced displacement of civilians is a war crime and risks disrupting the political process and political solution in Syria.
The Coalition stressed that the Assad regime is committing war crimes punishable by international law, adding that these crimes are aimed at disrupting the political process and replacing it with a bloody military solution. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
