UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2020) Hostilities in northwest Syria have forced more than 800,000 civilians to leave their homes since December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a situation report on Thursday.
"People in northwest Syria are living through some of the worst crisis since the war in Syria began," the report said. "More than 800,000 people have been displaced since 1 December, due to intense conflict in freezing weather."
According to OCHA, some 60 percent of those displaced are estimated to be children, and several of them are reported to have died because of the freezing weather.
To assist civilians on the move, the United Nations had implemented a response plan at the cost of $336 million for six months. OCHA said that the plan would be updated in the coming week as the 800,000 people threshold has already been exceeded.
The agency added that while the humanitarian partners are doing everything they can to meet the needs of civilians, an immediate halt of fighting is crucial to contain a human cost.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded at least 1,710 deaths among civilians since the end of April in Syria's northwest.
The northwestern province is one of the remaining militant strongholds in Syria, as pockets of the region are controlled by the armed rebel groups, including the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist organization (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia).
