The country
Syria (officially the Syrian Arab Republic) is a state in the Middle East with access to the Mediterranean Sea that gained independence from France in 1946. The state's capital is Damascus. The country shares land borders with Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq. Syria covers an area of 187,437 square kilometers. As of 2024, the country has an estimated population of around 23.2 million people.
The humanitarian situation
The Syrian conflict is one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises worldwide. The crisis continues to cause tremendous human suffering to people both inside and outside the country. People in Syria have been subject to massive and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Since 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and maimed, and millions have been forced to flee.
While continuing conflict in some parts of the country, record highs of food prices, an economic crisis, ongoing displacement, climatic shocks and disease continue to exacerbate humanitarian needs, more than two thirds of the Syrian population are in need of assistance. February 6, 2024 marked one year since devastating earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria. More than a year later, 230,000 people are still displaced due to the disaster.
Thirteen years of conflict in Syria have led to extreme suffering and one of two largest displacement crises in the world - the other being the Sudanese civil war - with more than 13.6 million people fleeing their homes.
While 7.2 million women, men and children are internally displaced in their own country, the ongoing civil war has resulted in more than 6.4 million Syrian refugees, located mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Neighboring Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, currently some 3.2 million people. Germany is the largest non-neighboring host country, with more than 670,000 refugees from Syria.
Syria, a country that used to be self-sufficient in food, is among the six most food insecure countries in the world, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). After thirteen years of conflict, 12 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity. Another 2.9 million people are at risk of falling into hunger, meaning that 65 percent of the population may soon be unable to feed their families.
2.5 million people are severely food insecure, and their lives are at risk without food assistance. Child and maternal malnutrition is increasing at an unprecedented rate. More than 650,000 children under the age of five show signs of stunting due to severe malnutrition, and a third of the countryโs children live in food poverty โ consuming just two or fewer food groups a day. WFP is providing monthly assistance for nearly seven million people.
The UN estimates that in 2024 approximately 16.7 million people will need life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance and protection. After more than a decade of conflict, children continue to pay the highest price. 6.5 million children in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance. While half a million boys and girls are chronically malnourished, the majority of Syrian children have experienced nothing but violent conflict.
Meanwhile, the economic situation in Syria is increasingly dire, with an estimated 90 percent of the population living in poverty. The worsening economic situation worsening is pushing already vulnerable communities deeper into hardship and insecurity. Freezing temperatures and recurring heat waves continue to put lives at risk, including the 2 million people living in camps in northwestern Syria. Some 800,000 people living in tents, often in overcrowded conditions, are particularly vulnerable to extreme temperatures.
On February 6, 2023, two of the region's most powerful earthquakes in more than 100 years, measuring 7.8 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, struck southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border. At least 18 million people were directly affected by the devastating earthquakes, which killed more than 60,000 women, men and children and injured more than 114,000 in Turkey and Syria. At least 300,000 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, leaving many people homeless and in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including large numbers of Syrian refugees on Turkish soil.
The earthquakes also severely affected northwestern Syria, a region where 4.2 million people already relied on humanitarian aid to survive. According to the United Nations. 8.8 million people in Syria were directly affected by the devastating earthquakes and required humanitarian assistance. Particularly in the northwest of the country, the effects of the earthquake, coupled with more than 13 years of conflict, have made reconstruction an extremely difficult task.
At least 6,795 people lost their lives in Syria - with reports as high as 8,476 - and nearly 15,000 were injured. At least 2,248 earthquake-related deaths were recorded in government-held areas. In rebel-held areas, the earthquakes killed at least 4,547 people, injured more than 10,000, and damaged more than 10,000 buildings. The cities of Aleppo, Latakia and Hama were hardest hit.
The earthquakes displaced an estimated 500,000 people and damaged or destroyed thousands of health facilities, homes, schools and water networks. The infrastructure and economy - already torn apart by war - were further damaged. Many people live in deep poverty and desperation, with 230,000 still displaced and extremely vulnerable (as of February 2024).
A cholera outbreak was declared by the Syrian government on September 10, 2022. As of December 2023, there have been more than 184,000 confirmed or suspected cases of cholera across the country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The 2024 Syria Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) seeks US$4.4 billion to reach some 13 million people with humanitarian assistance. Halfway through the year, however, the UN's humanitarian appeal for people inside the country is only 14 percent funded.
The 2024 Syria Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), led by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), appeals for US$5.7 billion to reach 12.9 million people in Syria's neighboring countries. The 3RP aims to reach some 6.3 million refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless people, as well as more than 6.6 million members of host communities, but is only 6 percent funded, as of June.
The revised 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Syria required US$5.4 billion, but as of February 2024, it was only 38 percent funded โ the worst-funded response plan since the start of the conflict. Only 6.8 million people (48 percent) of the target population had been reached last year. The 2023 Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), which covers refugees and host communities across the region, appealed for $5.77 billion and was only 14 percent funded as of February 2024.
The United Nations appealed for $4.44 billion in funding for the Syrian crisis in 2022. As of December 2022, only $2.11 billion had been received from donors (47 percent funded).
The security situation
The Syrian conflict is an ongoing, multi-faceted civil war that is being fought on Syrian territory between the Syrian Arab Republic, led by President Bashar al-Assad, and various domestic and foreign warring factions that, in various combinations, oppose both the Syrian government and each other.
Influenced by larger popular uprisings elsewhere in the Arab region, the unrest in Syria began in March 2011 out of dissatisfaction with the Syrian government and eventually escalated into armed conflict after protests calling for Assad's ouster were violently suppressed.
A number of foreign states, including Russia, Turkey, Iran, and the United States, have either intervened directly in the conflict or supported one faction or another. The conflict is largely defined by three military campaigns: violence between the Syrian government and opposing forces, US attempts to defeat the Islamic State, and Turkey's military operations against the Syrian Kurds.
The Syrian government, with Russian and Iranian support, regained control of many areas from opposition forces by 2020. After the Syrian government reasserted control over most of the country, violence subsided. Opposition forces have maintained limited control in Idlib in northwestern Syria and along the Iraqi-Syrian border in the northeast. In the northwest, a ceasefire between government and opposition forces has been in place since March 2020. In the northeast, a ceasefire was agreed in October 2019.
For three years, the fronts have been almost frozen, but the international community has so far failed to take advantage of the window of opportunity offered by the relative calm to launch a credible political process. Negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition forces have failed to resolve the conflict.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the ongoing conflict in several parts of Syria continues to leave people living in fear of attacks and at risk of renewed displacement. While large-scale hostilities have subsided following ceasefire agreements, localized hostilities and the lingering effects of past clashes continued throughout 2022. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), 1,057 civilians were documented killed by warring parties in the country in 2022.
October 2023 saw the largest escalation of hostilities in Syria in four years, adding to the suffering of those who have already lived through twelve years of conflict. In northwestern Syria, shelling and airstrikes by Syrian government forces resulted in hundreds of casualties and the displacement of more than 120,000 people. Meanwhile, northeastern Syria has also been hit by airstrikes. In October, Turkey escalated its ongoing drone attacks on Kurdish-held areas, reportedly killing dozens of people, damaging critical infrastructure, and cutting off water and electricity to millions.
The security situation in parts of the country remains unpredictable, while hostilities continue to be reported almost daily and civilians in Syria suffer from damage to civilian infrastructure. Throughout 2023, the protracted conflict in Syria was ongoing, with its devastating effects continuing to affect the lives of millions of Syrians. According to SNHR, at least 1,032 civilians, including 181 children, were killed in 2023. Approximately 195,000 people were displaced.
Donations
Your donation for the Syria emergency can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.
- UN Crisis Relief: Syria Crisis
https://crisisrelief.un.org/syria-crisis - World Food Programme: Syria emergency
https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/syria-emergency - UNICEF: Syrian Crisis
https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/syrian-crisis - Oxfam international: Crisis in Syria
https://www.oxfam.org/en/what-we-do/emergencies/crisis-syria - UNHCR: Syria emergency
https://www.unhcr.org/syria-emergency.html - Islamic Relief Worldwide: Syria crisis
https://islamic-relief.org/appeals/syria-crisis/ - ICRC: Syria crisis appeal
https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/syria-emergency - Save the children international: Donate to the Syria Crisis
https://www.savethechildren.org/us/where-we-work/syria
To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.
Further information
- UN OCHA: Syria
https://www.unocha.org/syria - World Health Organization (WHO): Syria crisis
https://www.who.int/emergencies/situations/syria-crisis - USA for UNHCR: Syria Refugee Crisis Explained
https://www.unrefugees.org/news/syria-refugee-crisis-explained/ - Council on Foreign Relations: Global Conflict Tracker: Conflict in Syria
https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/conflict-syria - ACAPS: Syria conflict
https://www.acaps.org/country/syria/crisis/conflict - Concern USA: The Syria crisis explained
https://www.concernusa.org/story/syria-crisis-explained/ - International Crisis Group: Syria
https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/syria - Human Rights Watch: World Report 2024: Syria
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/syria - Amnesty International World Report 2023/2024: Syria
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/syria/report-syria/
Last updated: 27/06/2024