Life & Death in Syria
Five years into war, what is left of the country?
BBC News, 15 March 2016
accessed March 15, 2016 at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-841ebc3a-1be9-493b-8800-2c04890e8fc9
The war in Syria has raged for five years and claimed the lives of more than
a quarter of a million people. Millions have fled the conflict, but nearly
18 million people still live in the war-torn country — so what is life like
for them?
Counting the cost
In many areas the threat of death or injury is a fact of life. Everyone in
Syria will have known people who have died — but the exact number of those
who are gone may never be known.
The Violations Documentation Center, a network of activists inside Syria,
has worked to record the victims and the cause of their deaths. Below are
some of the names of children the group has confirmed as having been killed
in the civil war.
The United Nations estimates that 17.9 million people still live in Syria —
down from 24.5 million before the war broke out. More than 6 million of them
are classed as internally displaced after being forced to flee their homes
to look for somewhere safer to live.
But where do they live? Most provinces have seen a sharp decline in
population and many of those that remain have fled the cities to seek
shelter in the countryside.
Life goes on as normal in many parts of the capital, Damascus, but elsewhere
millions struggle to get by. The UN says 13.5 million people are in need of
humanitarian assistance, with 4.5 million of those in hard-to-reach and
besieged areas like Deir al-Zour.
Pre-war population 24.5 million
Current population 17.9 million
Five years of war has all but destroyed Syria's economy, with the total
economic cost estimated at about $255bn (£180bn) by the Syrian Center for
Policy Research.
With unemployment estimated to be running at over 50% (up from 14% in 2011),
Syrian families face a daily struggle to make ends meet. Nearly 70% of the
population are living in extreme poverty, unable to secure basic food and
non-food items.
That struggle is made worse by the state of the farming industry in Syria.
Once one of the country's biggest sectors, its production and distribution
have been badly affected by the conflict and many regions now have high
levels of food insecurity.
Food as a weapon of war
Food has increasingly been used as a weapon, with aid often diverted onto
black markets or into government-approved areas. Reports of people starving
to death have emerged from besieged areas like Eastern Ghouta, a rebel
stronghold on the outskirts of Damascus.
With food production limited and food aid unreliable, getting hold of the
essentials can be both difficult and extremely expensive in many areas of
the country.
Bread, for example, is a key staple across the Arab world. Before the war,
Syria's government subsidised it and other essential food items as part of
the country's welfare system in return, it hoped, for the support of its
people.
But after losing control of vast areas that produce wheat, those subsidies
were reduced by the government and the price of bread has rocketed.
President Bashar al-Assad has sought to counter this by importing wheat from
Ukraine and Russia, which has kept prices relatively stable in
government-held areas like Damascus.
With so many people in Syria at risk of injury and illness, access to
healthcare has become hugely important. Yet, as the war has gone on many of
the country's medical facilities have been repeatedly attacked.
Between the start of the war in March 2011 and November 2015, Physicians for
Human Rights documented 336 attacks on at least 240 medical facilities
across the country. These attacks resulted in the deaths of 697 medical
personnel.
336 attacks on medical facilities
697 medical personnel killed
Source: Physicians for Human Rights
The number of available health professionals has dwindled to approximately
55% of the pre-war period. Access to healthcare facilities by both health
workers and those in need of medical attention has continually been hampered
by insecurity.
Just finding a medical facility has become difficult, with more than 40% of
the population unable to access basic health services. Of 113 public
hospitals, 58% of them either partially functioning or completely out of
service.
More than 50% of hospitals and health centres are either partially
functioning or completely out of service.
Source: UN
Educating the next generation
Thousands of children have been killed since 2011, but even for those that
have survived, the outlook remains bleak.
As families have fled Syria for safer shores, the number of school-age
children in the country has dwindled — there are a million fewer now than
there were in 2010. And of those that are still there, more than 40% are no
longer going to school.
Syria's education system has been shattered by the war, with one in four
schools having been damaged or destroyed, used as a shelter, or converted
into a military building.
Even if the schools were intact, many would be unable to open, with almost
one quarter of the country's teaching personnel — some 52,500 teachers — no
longer in their posts.
