920 000 displaced in Syria this year, says UN

MORE than 920 000 people were displaced inside Syria during the first four months of this year, the highest level in the seven-year conflict, the United Nations said yesterday.

“We are seeing a massive displacement inside Syria . . . From January to April, there were over 920 000 newly displaced people,” UN regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria Panos Moumtzis said in Geneva.

“This was the highest displacement in that short period of time we have seen since the conflict started.”

The fresh displacement inside Syria brings the number of people internally displaced in the war-ravaged country to 6.2 million, while there are still about 5.6 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, according to UN figures.

Moumtzis said most of the newly displaced had been forced on the move by escalations in fighting in the former rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta and within the northwestern province of Idlib.