Syrian civil war enters fifth year

Refugee and Migrant Crisis

The civil war in Syria is now entering its fifth year.
According to the United Nations, the fighting has killed some 200,000 people and displaced nearly half of the population of 23 million.
Efforts to end the conflict are complicated by the rise of Islamic fighters in the country.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he wants to “re-ignite” negotiations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end the conflict in Syria.

CCTV’s Alaa Ebrahim filed this report from Damascus.

Syrian civil war enters fifth year

The civil war in Syria is now entering its fifth year. According to the United Nations, the fighting has killed some 200,000 people and displaced nearly half of the population of 23 million.

  • Damascus today is a world away from the capital it was before March of 2011.
  • Much of the war’s attention has now turned to Islamic fighters who want to create a caliphate in both Syria and neighboring Iraq and who opposite the Syrian government.
  • The war is as complicated today as it was four years ago, as Syria now sits on the intersection of global interests where one of the most important elements is the balance of power on the ground.
  • Various rebel groups are now fighting with either Western or Arab support while the government is fortifying its positions with the help of several allies, from Moscow to Tehran.
  • A study by the Syrian Center for Policy Research shows that 80 percent of Syrians are suffering some form of poverty with a 20 percent increase in 2014 and that toll of damages inflicted by the war could reach over $202 billion and now unemployment stands at little over 60 percent.

Five years later, refugee crisis continues

The civil war in Syria is now in its fifth year. Refugees have flooded into neighboring counties –
creating what is now the world’s largest displaced population.

CCTV’s Natalie Carney files this report from Istanbul.

Highlights:

  • Syria marks the 4th anniversary of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad on March 15. The ongoing war is making a big number of people displaced.
  • UN records show more than half a million Syrians had fled the country by the end of 2012
  • By the start of 2015, the United Nations estimated there were more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees. Most of them live across the region around Syria. Half of those refugees are under the age of 18.
  •  Turkey now hosts more than 1.6 million Syrian refugees, while Lebanon is home to more than a million. Jordan has registered 600,000 and Iraq hosts close to 244,000.
  • Supporting millions of refugees has proven a challenge for the host countries, many with problems of their own. Funding from international donors is dwindling too.

Majid Rafizadeh talks about Syria

CCTV spoke to Majid Rafizadeh, an American political scientist, scholar at Harvard University. He talked more about the US foreign policy and the Syrian situation.