Nowhere else to flee: Why Idlib’s humanitarian crisis is so dangerous
More than 235,000 people have fled Syria’s last opposition stronghold of Idlib as the Syrian government, backed by Russia, stepped up attacks against the city.
A humanitarian catastrophe is underway in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.
As pro-government forces double down on Idlib and appear to close in on the key highway town of Maaret al-Numan in the province’s southern reaches, they are spurring the latest wave of tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes toward the relative safety of the province’s north.
The United Nations counts more than 235,000 people displaced in the past two weeks alone, largely from Maaret al-Numan and its surrounding countryside.
But after years of pro-government advances on opposition-held territory, Idlib remains Syria’s final bastion of rebel control. There is, effectively, nowhere else to run.
