SYRIA-TURKEY Nearly 3,800 deaths in 2022, the lowest number since the Syrian conflict began

According to the report prepared by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in more than a decade the balance is almost half a million victims. Among them, 1,627 civilians, of whom 321 were children and 209 were killed by landmines or unexploded bombs. For director Rami Abdel Rahman they are the result of “chaos” and “lack of security.”

Damascus () – Some 3,825 people died in Syria in 2022 as a result of the civil conflict, a figure that -although considerable- is the lowest figure since the first riots that began with the Arab Spring in March 2011 and later led to a proxy war between regional and global powers. These are the results presented by the report prepared by the experts of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO based in the United Kingdom and a dense network of informants on the ground that is one of the most recognized and reproduced sources in recent years of violence in the Arab country. In more than a decade, almost half a million people have died, and the war has sunk the economy and destroyed much of the infrastructure.

According to the Observatory, the budget has been reduced since the end of the main military operations of the Damascus forces, supported by Russia with air raids and massive attacks against rebel militias and jihadist groups. The progressive withdrawal of Moscow – at least on a military level – is a consequence of the war that the Kremlin began last February in Ukraine, and which seems destined to continue. At the same time, diplomatic relations between Syria and Turkey have intensified in recent weeks, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems determined, on the one hand, to launch an offensive in the north and, on the other, to reach an agreement with his Syrian counterpart Bashar. al-Assad.

Among the victims of 2022 there are 1,627 civilians, of whom 321 are children. At least 209 deaths, half of them minors, are the result of the explosion of buried antipersonnel mines or unexploded war debris left on the ground. Added to them are the 627 dead Syrian soldiers and 217 militiamen loyal to Damascus. The Observatory counts 562 fighters from the Islamic State killed, 387 from the Syrian Democratic Forces and associates, as well as 240 fighters from other opposition factions. The bloodiest year is still 2014, with at least 111,000 deaths. The intensity of the fighting has gradually decreased in the last two years in various areas, especially in the north-western province of Idlib, where Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) controls approximately half of the territory and has signed a ceasefire, which is maintained despite occasional outbreaks of violence.

The director of the Rami Abdel Rahman Observatory points out that a large part of the deaths are a consequence of the “chaos” and the “lack of security” that still exist in the country. Added to this are dozens of incursions by Israel and attacks by the Islamic State (IS, formerly Isis), which is still active in the area with small cells or lone wolves in the Syrian desert. Large areas, including agricultural plains and oil and gas wells, remain outside government control, especially the Kurdish sector in the northeast, the areas around Idlib and the Ankara-controlled buffer zone in the north.

Some governments interpret the steadily declining numbers positively and consider that the country is already peaceful and secure, at least enough to allow the return of millions of fugitives and refugees who left it in its darkest years. In fact, NGOs and human rights activists vehemently deny these statements, pointing out that the situation on the ground does not allow the return of people who are already in extremely difficult conditions. Among the critical elements are the arrests, forced disappearances and violence against former rebels and opponents who decide to return counting on an apparent “reconciliation”. In recent years, international sanctions and the Caesar Act imposed by the United States have hit the population even more than weapons, victims of unjust collective punishment and “endless suffering” that exploded the “poverty bomb.”