Damascus : There are 350,177 internally displaced families living in shelters inside the country, the Syrian social affairs ministry has revealed.
The number reflects the displaced families registered in local displacement shelters from the country’s 14 governorates, but around 5,878,317 internally displaced people are currently living outside of the protection of the local shelters, reported Xinhua citing recent data by the ministry
According to the report, the ministry is working to provide displaced people with basic necessities and is working inside the displacement shelters in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
Apart from those who are internally displaced, millions of other Syrians have sought refuge outside their country, mainly in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
Recent statistics showed that 9.3 million Syrians, half of whom are children, are in need of basic necessities. Around 2.5 million Syrians live in areas cut off by the conflict and around 1.9 million Syrian children are unable to attend school.
Syria’s civilians have been hard hit by the three-year-old conflict that has already killed more than 100,000 people since opposition protesters first sought the ouster of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.