Syria's War in Numbers

Beirut, Mar 12 (AFP) More than 380,000 dead, more than half of the population forced from their homes, and a country in ruins: Syria's war, which started in March 2011, has been devastating.

Here are some figures from the nine years of conflict: Victims

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict via a network of sources across Syria, says it has recorded the deaths of more than 380,000 people.

According to its toll in January 2020, those killed have included more than 115,000 civilians, of whom 22,000 were children and 13,612 women.

Disability rates

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Syrian war represents one of the most severe and complex emergency situations in the world, and has considerably weakened its health system.

Disability rates have increased to 30 per cent in some parts of the country -- double the world average.

At least 45 per cent of people wounded in the conflict will live with a permanent disability.

Displacement

According to the US NGO CARE, the conflict has caused the biggest population displacement since the Second World War.

Fighting has forced more than half the country's pre-war population of 23 million from their homes.

The UN said in February 2020 the number of refugees abroad has reached 5.5 million, while more than six million people are displaced within Syria.

Refugees

Turkey, the main host country, has taken in 3.6 million refugees.

It fears another influx due to the regime's offensive in the northwestern region of Idlib, which since it started in December has displaced nearly a million people.

Lebanon says it hosts 1.5 million Syrians, bringing its total population to 4.5 million.

Less than one million of those are registered with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Most of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon lack security and depend on international aid.

In Jordan, where the UNHCR says it has registered more than 650,000 Syrians, the government says it is hosting 1.3 million refugees.

At least another 300,000 Syrians have taken refuge in Iraq and more than 130,000 in Egypt, the UN agency says.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have also headed to Europe, notably to Germany, where they account for the majority of asylum seekers.

Jailed, tortured

Since the start of the conflict, President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been accused of human rights abuses including torture, rape and summary executions.

According to the Observatory, at least 60,000 people have died from torture or due to dire conditions in regime prisons.

Half a million people have gone through regime jails since the outbreak of the war, it says.

In 2017, Amnesty International said authorities had hanged around 13,000 people between 2011 and 2015 at the infamous Saydnaya prison near Damascus.

Several thousand have died over the same period in prisons run by jihadists or other rebel groups, Amnesty says.

Economy in ruins

The economy has also been devastated by nine years of war. Four out of five households are unable to meet their food needs, the UN's World Food Programme says.

With unemployment, power cuts and gas shortages, 83 per cent of Syrians live below the poverty line, according to the UN, compared with 28 per cent before the war.

The oil and gas sector has since 2011 lost an estimated USD 74 billion, according to Syrian authorities.

The UN estimates the overall cost in damages at nearly USD 400 billion. Whole areas and towns lie in ruins.

For the UN the situation in Idlib represents "probably the biggest crisis we have in the world today." (AFP)

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