UN says more than 948,000 displaced in Syria due to fighting
More than 948,000 people have been displaced in north-western Syria since December due to an ongoing Syrian government campaign in the last rebel stronghold in the country, the UN said on Wednesday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said this in a tweet.
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“More than 948,000 people now estimated displaced since Dec. 1. That’s nearly 180,000 families, more than 195,000 women and more than 560,000 children,” the UN said.
The latest update comes as the UN Security Council is due to meet later Wednesday on the situation in north-western Syria.
The spike in the number of the displaced people in the region has triggered warnings from several humanitarian agencies and countries.
The foreign ministers of 14 EU countries on Wednesday called for a halt to fighting in Syria’s north-western province of Idlib.
The text was signed by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Ireland.
In late April, the Syrian government and allied Russians launched a large-scale campaign to seize the region from rebels.
Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire in the region in January.
The truce collapsed as the Syrian army and allied forces have made advances in the province.
