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170,000 people living in the open in NW Syria: UN
BEIRUT, Feb 20, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – An estimated 170,000 of the 900,000
civilians forced from their homes in a massive wave of displacement in
northwestern Syria are living out in the open, the UN said Thursday.
The largest displacement since the civil war in Syria broke out nearly
nine years ago comes in the thick of winter, with temperatures often dipping
below zero Celsius and snow covering some districts.
“Harsh winter conditions further aggravate the suffering of these
vulnerable people who fled their homes to escape the violence, most of whom
have been displaced multiple times over nine years of conflict,” the United
Nations said.
In its latest update, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs said around a fifth of those newly displaced were sleeping rough.
“Almost 170,000 of those newly displaced people are estimated to be living
in the open or in unfinished buildings,” it said.
The UN said that the camps sheltering some of the rest were overstretched
and that many families were pitching tents on plots with no access to basic
services such as latrines.
The UN’s top humanitarian coordinator Mark Lowcock had warned earlier this
week that a ceasefire was needed to avert a humanitarian disaster on a scale
yet unseen in the Syria war.
But in a Wednesday vote at the UN Security Council, Russia unsurprisingly
blocked a resolution demanding a ceasefire in northwestern Syria.
Backed by Russian warplanes, Syrian government and allied forces have been
closing in on the last bastion of armed opposition.
A pincer movement of forces thrusting their way into Idlib from the south
and from Aleppo province to the east is boxing holdout rebels into an ever-
shrinking enclave.
It is also forcing the estimated three million people into an increasingly
confined and densely populated area near the border with Turkey.
The UN has called on Turkey to take in more refugees, arguing that the
emergency is extreme.
Turkey, which already hosts the world’s largest number of Syrian refugees
with around 3.6 million people, wants to avoid another mass influx.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2040HRS