NW Syria violence displaces 500,000 in two months
A Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against
the country’s last rebel enclave has displaced more than half a million people
in two months, the United Nations said Tuesday.
“Since 1 December, some 520,000 people have been
displaced from their homes, the vast majority -- 80 percent -- of them women
and children,” David Swanson, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, said.
The wave of displacement, which coincides with a
biting winter, is one of the largest since the start of the Syrian war nearly
nine years ago.
“This latest displacement compounds an already dire
humanitarian situation on the ground, when over 400,000 people were displaced
from the end of April through the end of August, many of them multiple times,”
Swanson said.
He said the UN was alarmed by the plight of more
than three million people -- half of them displaced from their homes -- who
live in Idlib province and surrounding areas.
Government troops and militia backed by Russian and
other allied forces have in recent weeks ramped up the pressure on the last
pocket still controlled by rebels and jihadists.
They have retaken dozens of villages and some major
towns -- including the erstwhile rebel bastion of Maaret al-Numan -- and are
pushing northwards, sending displaced populations ever closer to the Turkish
border.
