SYRIA CRISES FACTS AND CLEAR
Some of the worst violence we’ve seen over the course of the Syrian crisis is taking place right now in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta region, just northeast of the capital of Damascus. Each day, the situation grows more dire.
Despite a resolution from the United Nations Security Council demanding a cease-fire and the declaration of daily humanitarian pauses, we have barely seen a lull in violence.
In the past few days, escalating violence has left more than 550 people dead and at least 2,000 injured.
Eastern Ghouta has been under siege since 2013.
Some 400,000 people are trapped here, with limited resources and no way to flee the conflict.
For more than a week now, families have been hiding in basements and underground shelters without proper ventilation, water or sanitation systems — many are digging their own underground shelters.
Residents have little to no access to food, medicine or sanitary supplies. This year’s hard, cold winter has made conditions even worse.
"This recent onslaught of violence comes on top of one of the worst hunger crises we have seen in the Syrian conflict," says Arnaud Quemin, Syria country director for Mercy Corps. "Bread prices are almost 22 times higher than the national average and the UN reports that 12 percent of Eastern Ghouta's children under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition."
The Syrian conflict has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country’s pre-war population — more than 11 million people — have been killed or forced to flee their homes.
Families are struggling to survive inside Syria, or make a new home in neighboring countries.
Others are risking their lives on the way to Europe, hoping to find acceptance and opportunity.
And harsh winters and hot summers make life as a refugee even more difficult. At times, the effects of the conflict can seem overwhelming.
But one fact is simple: millions of Syrians need our help.
According to the U.N., $4.6 billion was required to meet the urgent needs of the most vulnerable Syrians in 2017 — but only a little more than half was received.
You can help.
The more you know about the crisis, the more we can do together to help those in need.
The lifesaving work we do, empowering people to survive through crisis and build better lives, is only possible with your knowledge and support.
So take a few minutes to understand the magnitude of this crisis.
Read below to learn the facts behind the figures — and find out
When did the crisis in Syria start?
Anti-government demonstrations began in March of 2011, as part of the Arab Spring.
But the peaceful protests quickly escalated after the government's violent crackdown, and armed opposition groups began fighting back.
By July, army defectors had loosely organized the Free Syrian Army and many civilian Syrians took up arms to join the opposition.
Divisions between secular and religious fighters, and between ethnic groups, continue to complicate the politics of the conflict.
What is happening to Syrians caught in the war?
The war has killed more than 500,000 people in the almost seven years since it began.
Crowded cities have been destroyed and horrific human rights violations are widespread. Basic necessities like food and medical care are sparse.
The U.N. estimates that 6.1 million people are internally displaced. When you also consider refugees, well over half of the country’s pre-war population of 22 million is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, whether they still remain in the country or have escaped across the borders.
The situation in Syria went from bad to worse when outside parties became involved in the conflict in the fall of 2015. As conflict intensifies, our teams on the ground have seen an increase in the number of civilian casualties and families forced to leave their homes in search of safety.
In December 2016, fighting in Aleppo City intensified and the warring parties came to an agreement to evacuate East Aleppo.
People, including some of our own team members, were forced to flee their homes and the city they had lived in all their lives, leaving their belongings behind.
Now, even more Syrians have been displaced.
What is happening in Raqqa, Syria?
Raqqa is located in northern Syria, along the northeast bank of the Euphrates River.
Prior to the war, it had a population of around 220,000, making it Syria’s sixth-largest city.
ISIS captured the city in 2013 and one year later declared it as its capital in Syria.
Approximately 200,000 people fled in the battle for Raqqa and displacement camps are overflowing.
In October 2017, the city was retaken from ISIS, but the human crisis is far from over.
The UN estimates that 80 percent of the city is now uninhabitable, water sources have been damaged by the conflict and there are no health services available in the city.
Families are eager to get home or to find more permanent shelter.
No one wants to spend this winter under a tent.
Where are Syrians fleeing to?
More than 6.1 million people have fled their homes and remain displaced within Syria. Some 1.8 million of whom were newly displaced in 2017 — approximately 6,550 people displaced each day.
They live in informal settlements, crowded in with extended family or sheltering in damaged or abandoned buildings.
Some people survived the horrors of multiple displacements, besiegement, hunger and disease and fled to areas where they thought they would be safe, only to find themselves caught up in the crossfire once again.
Across northern Syria, we are seeing that 20-60 percent of the population is made up of people who have had to flee their homes — many of them more than once.
More than 1.5 million Syrian refugees are living in Jordan and Lebanon, where Mercy Corps has been addressing their needs since 2012.
In the region’s two smallest countries, weak infrastructure and limited resources are nearing a breaking point under the strain.
In August 2013, more Syrians escaped into northern Iraq at a newly-opened border crossing.
Now they are trapped by that country's own internal conflict, and Iraq is struggling to meet the needs of Syrian refugees on top of 2.6 million internally displaced Iraqis — efforts that we are working to support.
More than 3.3 million Syrian refugees have fled across the border into Turkey, overwhelming urban host communities and creating new cultural tensions.
Many Syrians are also deciding they are better off starting over in Europe, attempting the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Greece.
Not all of them make it across alive. Those who do make it still face steep challenges — resources are strained, services are minimal and much of the route into western Europe has been closed.
How are people escaping Syria?
Thousands of Syrians flee their country every day.
They often decide to finally escape after seeing their neighborhoods attacked or family members killed.
The risks on the journey to the border can be as high as staying: Families walk for miles through the night to avoid being shot at by snipers or being caught by warring parties who will kidnap young men to fight for their cause.
How many Syrian refugees are there?
According to the U.N., more than 11 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes — enough people to fill roughly 200 Yankee Stadiums.
This includes about 5.3 million refugees who have been forced to seek safety in neighboring countries, out of a total 5.5 million Syrian refugees worldwide.
Every year of the conflict has seen an exponential growth in refugees. In July 2012, there were 100,000 refugees. One year later, there were 1.5 million. That tripled by the end of 2015.
Today there are 5.3 million Syrians scattered throughout the region, making them the world's largest refugee population under the United Nations' mandate. It's the worst exodus since the Rwandan genocide 24 years ago.
Do all refugees live in camps?
The short answer: no. Only about 8 percent of Syrian refugees live in camps.
The majority are struggling to settle in unfamiliar urban communities or have been forced into informal rural environments.
Jordan’s Zaatari, the first official refugee camp that opened in July 2012, gets the most news coverage because it is the destination for newly-arrived refugees. It is also the most concentrated settlement of refugees: Approximately 80,000 Syrians live in Zaatari, making it one of the country’s largest cities.
The formerly barren desert is crowded with acres of white tents, makeshift shops line a “main street” and sports fields and schools are available for children.
Azraq, a camp opened in April 2014, is carefully designed to provide a sense of community and security, with steel caravans instead of tents, a camp supermarket, and organized "streets" and "villages."
Because Jordan’s camps are run by the government and the U.N. — with many partner organizations like Mercy Corps coordinating services — they offer more structure and support.
But many families feel trapped, crowded, and even farther from any sense of home, so they seek shelter in nearby towns.
Iraq has set up a few camps to house the influx of refugees who arrived in 2013, but the majority of families are living in urban areas.
And in Lebanon, the government has no official camps for refugees, so families establish makeshift camps or find shelter in derelict, abandoned buildings.
In Turkey, the majority of refugees are trying to survive and find work, despite the language barrier, in urban communities.
What conditions are Syrian refugees facing outside camps?
Some Syrians know people in neighboring countries who they can stay with.
But many host families were already struggling on meager incomes and do not have the room or finances to help as the crisis drags on.
Refugees find shelter wherever they can.
Our teams have seen families living in rooms with no heat or running water, in abandoned chicken coops and in storage sheds.
Most refugees must find a way to pay rent, even for derelict structures. Without any legal way to work in Jordan and Lebanon, they struggle to find odd jobs and accept low wages that often don’t cover their most basic needs.
The situation is slightly better in the Kurdish Autonomous region of northern Iraq, where Syrian Kurds can legally work, but opportunities are now limited because of the conflict there. And language is still a barrier.
The lack of clean water and sanitation in crowded, makeshift settlements is an urgent concern.
Diseases can easily spread — even more life-threatening without enough medical services.
Reports indicate that as much as 35 percent of the population is currently relying on unsafe sources to meet daily water needs.
In some areas with the largest refugee populations, water shortages have reached emergency levels; the supply has been as low as 22 liters per person per day — less than one-tenth of what the average American uses.
The youngest refugees face an uncertain future. Some schools have been able to divide the school day into two shifts and make room for more Syrian students.
But there is simply not enough space for all the children, and many families cannot afford the transportation to get their kids to school.
How many Syrian refugees are children?
According to the U.N., almost half of all Syrian refugees — roughly 2.6 million — are under the age of 18.
Most have been out of school for months, if not years.
About 36,000 school buses would be needed to drive every young refugee to school.
The youngest are confused and scared by their experiences, lacking the sense of safety and home they need. The older children are forced to grow up too fast, finding work and taking care of their family in desperate circumstances.
One demographic that is largely overlooked is adolescents.
Through Mercy Corps’ extensive work in and around Syria, we continuously witness young adults and adolescents in crisis.
The consequence of forgetting the unique needs of this next generation is they will become adults who are ill-equipped to mend torn social fabric and rebuild broken economies.
Investing in adolescents now will yield dividends for decades to come for the peace and productivity so desperately needed in Syria and the region.
Is there enough assistance to reach everyone?
With no peace in sight, Mercy Corps and other humanitarian organizations are struggling just to keep up with needs that continue to grow exponentially. U.N. appeals have been significantly underfunded every single year since the start of the Syrian crisis.
According to the U.N., $4.6 billion was required in 2017 to provide emergency support and stabilization to families throughout the region — but just over half was received.
This year, $3.5 billion is required, and only 5 percent has been received.
It’s essential that, in addition to funding emergency assistance, the U.N. and donor governments fund long-term programs that address the underlying causes of the Syrian conflict, build resilience and promote peaceful communities.
