SYRIA’S ENDLESS CRISIS

Luglio 21, 2023

SYRIA’S ENDLESS CRISIS

The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed insights on the most significant developments in the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions and reliable foresight on future scenarios. Today we turn the spotlight on Syria: despite its diplomatic rehabilitation, the country is still ravaged by an endless conflict.

Twelve years after the outbreak of the civil war, Syria’s conflict and the related humanitarian crisis show no sign of abating. The UN currently estimates that 15.3 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance within the country, a 5 per cent increase from 2022. Syria’s extremely fragile situation was further exacerbated by the February earthquakes, especially in the northwest, where some 4 million people – including 2.7 million internally displaced – live in dire conditions. But while the population is increasingly in need of assistance, international agencies are coping with funding shortages, with some, like the World Food Programme, already forced to scale down their Syria- and refugee-hosting countries-based operations. On June 12 and 13, the Rome MED Dialogues and the Carter Center co-hosted a closed-door meeting on Syria to discuss steps that could be taken at the international level to address the humanitarian crisis. We have asked some of the participants to share their thoughts on some of the issues that were discussed at the meeting.