UN says nearly 700,000 Syrians displaced so far in 2018

Nearly 700,000 Syrians have been forced to flee their homes this year because of fighting in several parts of the country, the UN official coordinating the crisis response said today.

“I am deeply concerned about the continuing massive displacement of close to 700,000 Syrians since the beginning of the year due to ongoing hostilities in the country,” Panos Moumtzis, regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said in a statement.

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More than 400,000 people had been displaced by military operations in the northern governorate of Idlib, as well as 133,000 from eastern Ghouta, close to Damascus, and violence was also continuing in southern Damascus and northern Homs province and the northeast and south of Syria.

On Saturday, as many 85 people were killed and hundreds were injured in a suspected chemical weapons attack on the town of Douma, the last opposition-controlled area in eastern Ghouta near Damascus, medical sources said.