DAMASCUS, Syria — Currently in Syria, 11 million individuals require humanitarian assistance and roughly 3 million individuals have been forced to flee to neighboring countries. The United States, through United States Agency for International Development, is working to assist those in need with deliveries of food, medicine and capital to the area. This humanitarian crisis is the result of an ongoing three-year civil war between the Syrian government and various opposing parties.
Currently, there are refugee populations scattered throughout neighboring states as a result of the current conflict, with 1,100,000 in Lebanon, 800,000 in Turkey, 600,000 in Jordan, 220,000 in Iraq and 138,000 in Egypt.
This conflict has its roots in protests that arose in March 2011 in the southern Syrian City of Deraa. These protests, directed against the state, were in response to the arrest and subsequent torture of teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall.
Security forces fired upon the protesters in this southern city, and this action, while killing several protestors, also provided the impetus for the protests to spread to other cities. By July 2011, hundreds of thousands of citizens across the nation were protesting against President Bashar al-Assad and his government.
Eventually these protests resulted in various opposition forces that opposed President Bashar al-Assad arming themselves and battling government forces for control of cities and regions throughout the country. In 2012, the fighting reached Syria’s capital of Damascus and the city of Aleppo. In July 2013, the U.N. estimated that over 100,000 people had been killed by the conflict. However, current estimates by various activists put the death toll now closer to 140,000.
The opposition forces suffer from heavy division between the various groups, as they are unable to agree on much other than a general abhorrence of the current president. There are an estimated an 1,000 groups opposing the president with 100,000 fighters between them.
Several of the groups follow and espouse a radical Islam and have been linked to al-Qaeda. This linkage of has hindered international aid to the rebels, as well as contributing to rebel infighting.
Massacres and violence against civilians have been committed by both the rebels and the government. Currently, the U.N. is aware of and has verified 27 different incidents of mass killings of civilians occurring. Seventeen were perpetrated by government forces or their militia allies and 10 have been perpetrated by the differing rebel groups.
The main result from this conflict has been the growing victimization and displacement of the Syrian people. In an attempt to ameliorate this growing humanitarian crisis, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced on July 30th, 2014 that the U.S. will provide $378 million to aid those in need in the area.
$191 million will go to food assistance and $152 million will go to reproductive health services, responses to gender-based violence, provision of water, hygiene and sanitation.
Since the crisis has begun, the U.S. has already given more than $2.4 billion to help those suffering inside of Syria. Of said aid, $438 million went to already existing non-governmental organizations in the area to help support cross-border assistance. This allows children, women and men who were previously unreachable due to insecurity to gain some measure of aid, as they struggle to simply survive this three year long crisis. $36 million of this most recent aid will be going towards these programs.
It is important to note, however, that the United States is not the only nation concerned for Syria’s civilians and the United Nations too is sending aid to the region.
On July 24, the U.N. sent its first convoy across Syria’s border to provide aid for those within. This convoy came after the passage of UNSCR 2165, a bill which authorized the U.N. to deliver humanitarian aid to conflict affected populations without the approval from the Syrian Arab republic Government.
Traveling into Syria from Turkey across the Bab al-Saleem-Kilis border crossing, the convoy was comprised of nine trucks carrying food, shelter, water purification and sanitation supplies.
As Syria descends further and further into intrastate violence, the international community must continue their already substantial assistance to those in the area.
– Albert Cavallaro
Sources: USAID 1, U.S. State Department, USAID 2, USAID 3, BBC
Photo: flickr