On March 15, 2014, the world will wake up to the third anniversary of the bloody conflict in Syria. Will we let the people of Syria lose another year to bloodshed and suffering? Will you stand with Syria?
Banksy, Elbow and Idris Elba stand together with Syria in this moving video tribute, to mark the anniversary.
Read more about the video here.
#withsyria – The With Syria Campaign
Imagine you have a young child whose legs must be amputated because hospitals don’t have the proper equipment to treat them, or a world in which a patient opts to be knocked unconscious with a metal bar because there are no anaesthetics. Imagine a life where newborn babies die in their incubators because of power cuts.
Horrific, isn’t it? Yet this is reality for people inside Syria who have endured the hell and barbarity of war for three years.
The number of Syrian refugees has now passed 2.5 million.
2.5 million lives changed forever.
Half are children…
A
rticle from Nader Hashemi at the CNN site. A quote:
Over the past three years, we have witnessed state-sanctioned war crimes and crimes against humanity replete with chemical weapons, barrel bombs, the targeting of children, mass rape, a refugee crisis and according to a new report “industrial-scale” torture and killings. Indeed, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has described Syria as “a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 140,000 people have been killed in Syria’s war. The period since the “Geneva 2” peace talks for Syria began last month have been the bloodiest of the nearly three-year conflict.
Read more in this Reuters story.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 20,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Turkey since the start of the year in the biggest influx since early 2013. In recent days, more than 500 people have been arriving each day at the official crossing points, with some days the influx reaching as many as 1,000 to 2,000 Syrians.
Read more at the UNHCR site.
“The United Nations says [Syria] is fast becoming the worst and most expensive humanitarian catastrophe in modern history.”
Syria Policy Unraveling, from Politico.
“The world must act to save a generation of traumatized, isolated and suffering children from catastrophe. If we do not move quickly, this generation of innocents will become lasting casualties of war.” — UN
MercyCorps has put together an excellent overview of the key facts about the Syrian refugee crisis.
A must read!
Palmyra Relief 