Syria sees largest displacement since 2011

UNITED NATIONS — An estimated 270,000 people have been displaced as a result of military operations in Daraa province in southwestern Syria, the largest displacement in the area since 2011 when the conflict began, the UN said on Monday.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq stressed that “estimates are subject to change as numbers continue to be verified and front lines shift”.

A UN convoy has been on standby at the Ramtha border crossing, between Syria and Jordan, since June 27 and is waiting for the security situation to get better to resume.

UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura recently warned that a full-scale battle in the country’s previously calm southwest could engulf an area and population the size of Eastern Ghouta and Aleppo combined.

Meanwhile, the rebel groups in Daraa are divided between those who want to reconcile with the government and ultraradical groups, which want to continue fighting amid a wide-scale military campaign in that area.

The state news agency SANA said on Monday that the rebels in the town of Busra al-Sham in the eastern countryside of Daraa have started handing over their heavy weapons to the Syrian army as part of the “reconciliation” process that was agreed upon in that town a day earlier.

The reconciliation deal was proposed by Russia, which is negotiating with various rebel groups in Daraa in a bid to reach a deal that could see the return of Daraa under the government control with less military action.