ALEPPO, Syria — The United Nations announced Jan. 16 that the escalation of violence in northwest Syria has led to the displacement of more than 200,000 people since mid-December. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report that it had recorded 212,140 instances of displacement between Dec. 15 and Jan. 16.
This humanitarian tragedy came after Syrian regime and paramilitary forces, assisted by Russian aircraft, stepped up air, artillery and missile strikes against opposition-held cities and towns in the southern countryside of Aleppo, the southeastern countryside of Idlib and the northeastern countryside of Hama.