Syria What Is Happening

The crisis in Syria passes the two-year mark in March with no end to the conflict in sight. Meanwhile the number of people in need grows as close to 1 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries while about 2 million people are displaced within Syria. And as fighting persists, the death toll continues to rise, topping 70,000 killed in early March.

Amid this conflict, humanitarian groups, including some InterAction members, are involved in the response coordination and providing relief in the form of medical care, food, clothing, counseling and shelter. Much of the assistance is supporting refugees in camps in the neighboring countries of Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. NGOs are helping to ensure the protection of women and girls,  providing prescriptions for free medicine, offering training in conflict resolution and giving children a safe place to play – among other efforts.

Within Syria, an estimated one in five people – 4 million people – need humanitarian assistance. The situation is particularly dire for internally-displaced people lacking winter clothes and blankets and living in shelters without proper insulation, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Others who remain at home have no fuel or electricity for heat during a winter that has been particularly harsh.

Efforts to reach these people are complicated by insecurity and access restrictions. The Syrian government, under President Bashar al-Assad, has limited the number of humanitarian groups authorized to operate within its borders.  Funding shortages are also severe, according to OCHA, the UN agency that brings together humanitarian actors responding to emergencies.