NOVANEWS
Two million citizens expected to leave the country as refugees, while 2.25 million projected to be internally displaced
Times of Israel
More than four million additional Syrians will be forced to flee their homes in 2014, according to the UN, due to the ongoing civil war in their country.
Some two million are projected to leave Syria to neighboring countries and beyond, while another 2.25 million will be internally displaced, according to a report seen by Reuters and AFP.
More than two million Syrians have already fled the country, with the number of registered refugees expected to be 3.2 million by the end of 2013. And millions more are displaced within Syria’s borders.
The UN estimates that more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of fighting between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and myriad opposition groups.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told a recent meeting of humanitarian organizations that Syria is set to see an “escalation of the conflict with increased fragmentation, disruption of essential services and further erosion of coping mechanisms.”
According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees data cited by NBC, Lebanon currently houses the most Syrian refugees, with some 780,000, followed by more than 535,000 in Jordan and 500,000 in Turkey. A meeting summary posted Thursday indicated that Europe and North Africa will see an increased number of Syrian refugees by the end of 2014.
The UN further estimates that 8.3 million Syrians will require humanitarian aid next year, roughly one-third of the country’s population.
