The Syrian civil war

2.5 million displaced in Syria crisis

More than 2.5 million people have been internally displaced in Syria as a result of the civil war, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent said on Tuesday, doubling the previous estimate.

The Telegraph,

13 November, 2012

As the fighting in Syria spreads, leaving almost no city unscathed, millions of people have snatched what possessions they can carry and fled their homes in search of a safer hideout inside the country.

"The figure they are using is 2.5 million. If anything, they believe it could be more, this is a very conservative estimate," Melissa Fleming, chief spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in Geneva.

Over the past year-and-a-half thousands of families fled from Homs, Deraa, Hama and other cities that suffered from sustained bombardments to the Syrian capital Damascus, that had until recently remained relatively insulated from the violence.

Now that much the city has also become a combat ground, refugees have been squeezed into those few quieter districts.

"Unable to find or afford accommodation, I can see families sleeping in parks and on city streets," said an activist in Damascus calling herself Lena. "But now that it is winter it is dangerously cold for them."

Across the country, thousands of people have been forced to sleep outdoors.

The UN has said it expects to provide aid, including blankets, clothing and cooking kits, to some 500,000 people in the war-torn country by the end of the year.

But the widespread violence is making distribution inside Syria increasingly difficult. Up to 13,000 blankets that were destroyed by fire in an Aleppo warehouse apparently hit by a shell and truck carrying another 600 blankets was hijacked on its way to Adra outside Damascus, said Mrs Fleming.

The UNHCR has temporarily withdrawn about half of its 12 staff from north-eastern Hasakah province, an area on the Turkish border where battles have raged around the town of Ras al-Ain. In total, UNHCR has 350 staff in Syria working out of Damascus, the northern battleground of Aleppo and Hasakeh.

The UN has said that it believes up to four million people inside Syria will need humanitarian aid by early next year.