Nearly 700,000 Syrians have been forced to flee their homes this year because of fighting in several parts of the country, the UN official coordinating the crisis response said on Tuesday.
“I am deeply concerned about the continuing massive displacement of close to 700,000 Syrians since the beginning of the year due to ongoing hostilities in the country,” Panos Moumtzis, regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said in a statement.
“The latest displacement comes on top of already 6.5 million internally displaced Syrians and over 5.6 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. Over half of the Syrian population has now been displaced and are in need of humanitarian and protection assistance.”
“Civilians in Syria continue to be caught up in horrific violence. Hostilities, including attacks on residential areas, civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, markets, schools have resulted in scores of civilians being killed or injured on a daily basis. This is unacceptable,” the UN official added.
Moumtzis went on to say that the level of attacks on health facilities, workers and infrastructure in the first three months of 2018 was three times the rate seen in 2017.
“It is critical that civilians be protected and I echo the UN Secretary-General in calling on all parties to the conflict to ensure respect for international humanitarian and human rights law, including humanitarian access across Syria to all people in need, as per relevant Security Council resolutions.” (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
