More than 38,000 people have been displaced in five days in northwestern Syria, the United Nations (UN) said on Friday (January 24th). "Deeply concerned" by the displacements of populations on the increase in this zone subjected to recurrent air raids.
The United Nations receives "Almost daily reports of air strikes and artillery fire in the area"David Swanson, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Between 15 and 19 January, more than 38,000 displaced people left, mainly from West Aleppo" to other areas of the province or areas of Idleb, he said in a statement.
The Idleb province and parts of the neighboring regions of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia are dominated by the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham (HTS, former Syrian branch of Al-Qaida). Rebel groups are also present there. In recent days, the Russian air force and that of the Syrian regime have focused their strikes on the western territories of Aleppo province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
"Serious humanitarian catastrophe"
Since early December, 358,000 people have been displaced in northwestern Syria, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the UN. "This latest escalation has opened a dangerous new front in the conflict", deplored the International Rescue Committee (IRC). "We are already in the midst of a serious humanitarian disaster", added the NGO in a statement.
"The camps (displaced) are full, the health services are overwhelmed, the majority live in fragile tents where several occupants are crowded and which are regularly flooded when it rains ", according to the IRC.
In recent days, dozens of civilians have been killed in western Aleppo and Idleb, mainly in Russian air strikes, according to the OSDH. On Friday, the regime’s air force and its Russian ally bombed several villages in Aleppo and Idleb, according to the Observatory, which did not report any casualties in the immediate future. The Observatory determines the perpetrators of the raids based on the type of aircraft used, the location of the strike, the flight plans and the ammunition used. For its part, Moscow denies any "Combat mission".
The director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahmane, believes that the escalation could constitute a prelude to an offensive of the regime, which seeks to secure the city of Aleppo, within reach of rocket attacks by jihadists and insurgents, but also the highway connecting the city, held by the government, to the capital Damascus.
The Idleb region was already the scene of a major offensive between April and August 2019 which killed nearly a thousand civilians, according to the OSDH. The Syrian government, which now controls more than 70% of the country, said it was determined to recapture the entire sector.
