The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that seven million Syrians are internally displaced as a result of the ongoing war, noting that people are seeking refuge in relatively safer areas inside Syrian or neighboring countries.
The displaced people were cited as: 2.2 million from Rural Damascus, 1.7 million from Aleppo, 1.1 million from Homs, 390,000 from Deir Ezzor, 300,000 from Latakia, 245,000 from Dara’a, 235,000 from Hama and 520,000 from Idlib, Damascus, and Al-Hasakah.
Hisham Marwa, vice president of the Syrian Coalition, calls on world leaders who condemn terror to address the root cause, namely the Assad regime, in Syria which has gone beyond killing civilians en masse over the past four years to manufacturing and sponsoring terrorist groups in an attempt to circumvent the demands of the revolution and portray it as a terrorist movement.
“In his desperate attempt to crush the revolution, Assad not only has used many weapons against rebel areas, but has also followed the policy of collective punishment against 100,000s of civilians by imposing crippling sieges on many areas across Syria. The starvation of civilians besieged in the Yarmouk refugee camp, East Ghouta near Damascus, and Al Waer near Homs is a war crime and genocide against civilians in those areas,” Marwa said.
“The Assad regime continues to flagrantly violate the UN Security Council resolutions 2139 and 2165 which calls for lifting the siege imposed on all areas in Syria and the cross-border introduction of humanitarian aid without the consent of the Assad regime.” Moreover, Marwa stresses that the plight of civilians in the besieged areas has been further exacerbated by bitter cold and severe shortages of lifesaving necessities, which places greater responsibility on the international community to respond to the tragedy of the Syrian people.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Al Arabiya)
