Syrian Refugee Crisis
Understanding why it started. This cartoon explains the very beginning of the Syrian conflict.
The cartoon explains that the conflict began in 2011 - 4 years ago, beginning with a major drought. This article explains what happened after the initial uprising and arrest/torture of the teenagers who spray-painted the revolutionary slogans.
During 2012, rebel forces opposing the government had several tactical successes. Then in early 2013, the government forces were able to recapture a lot of what the rebels had the previous year. June 2013, saw the government troops joined by Hezbollah.
ISIL from Iraq then joined the fray from the east. They are in conflict with the secular moderates in the rebel group as well as Assad regime (government). By July 2014, ISIL controlled most of Syria's oil and gas production.
There is also a Kurdish population in the north fighting with the rebels against ISIL.
The current death toll from the Syrian conflict is estimated at 240,000.
According to UNHCR there are ~20 million refugees worldwide (with another ~40 mil displaced internally). Syria is the country where the largest numbers of refugees are coming from. Almost 25% of the world's refugees are from Syria.
Of the approximately 22 million people originally living in Syria in 2011, 7 million are displaced internally (fled their homes but not left Syria) and 4 million have fled Syria altogether (refugees). Half of Syria's population is not living at home. 95% of the Syrian refugees are currently located in surrounding countries - Turkey to the north, having taken in the most.
So that's my attempt at explaining this VERY complicated conflict. Now the question is, how do we respond to the biggest human crisis in our lifetime?
*If there's something I've messed up explaining, please let me know. This was hard to do.
The cartoon explains that the conflict began in 2011 - 4 years ago, beginning with a major drought. This article explains what happened after the initial uprising and arrest/torture of the teenagers who spray-painted the revolutionary slogans.
During 2012, rebel forces opposing the government had several tactical successes. Then in early 2013, the government forces were able to recapture a lot of what the rebels had the previous year. June 2013, saw the government troops joined by Hezbollah.
ISIL from Iraq then joined the fray from the east. They are in conflict with the secular moderates in the rebel group as well as Assad regime (government). By July 2014, ISIL controlled most of Syria's oil and gas production.
There is also a Kurdish population in the north fighting with the rebels against ISIL.
According to UNHCR there are ~20 million refugees worldwide (with another ~40 mil displaced internally). Syria is the country where the largest numbers of refugees are coming from. Almost 25% of the world's refugees are from Syria.
Of the approximately 22 million people originally living in Syria in 2011, 7 million are displaced internally (fled their homes but not left Syria) and 4 million have fled Syria altogether (refugees). Half of Syria's population is not living at home. 95% of the Syrian refugees are currently located in surrounding countries - Turkey to the north, having taken in the most.
So that's my attempt at explaining this VERY complicated conflict. Now the question is, how do we respond to the biggest human crisis in our lifetime?
*If there's something I've messed up explaining, please let me know. This was hard to do.
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