FROM THE FIELD: Syria statistics tell tragic tale of decade-long conflict
Ten numbers for each year of Syria’s seemingly interminable conflict: the UN’s Humanitarian agency (OCHA) has marked this tragic milestone by highlighting in figures the country’s miserable decade of suffering and loss.
The statistics are staggering. Fighting has forced some 13 million people, more than 60 per cent of the country’s population out of their homes, and Syrians account for around a quarter of the world’s total refugee population.
A paediatrician attends to a young boy suffering from malnutrition at the Sakhour health centre in Eastern Aleppo city. (file) , by © UNOCHA/Halldorsson
Unsurprisingly, there is an enormous need for humanitarian aid in Syria: more than 13.4 million people in the country need some sort of relief. At the same time, delivering that aid is a dangerous, sometimes deadly, business: on average, at least two aid workers and eight medical personnel have been killed in Syria every month for the past decade.
OCHA has compiled the numbers here, including heart-rending stories and testimony from some of the many children whose whole lives have been dominated by instability, insecurity and war.
