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Nearly half a million people died in the last decade in Syria, since the beginning of the revolution in March 2011 that resulted in a bloody war that has devastated the country and its population, according to the latest balance sheet of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
As documented by the NGO, based in London but with a wide network of collaborators on the ground, at least 494,438 people have lost their lives, 159,774 of whom were civilian victims, from March 15, 2011, when the revolution began, until May 30.
Among the civilian casualties are a total of 25,048 minors and 15,135 women, the Observatory detailed.
The rest of the dead include members of forces loyal to the Syrian government, allied militias, fighters from armed opposition groups and jihadists, as well as from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, among others.
The Observatory’s new balance sheet is based on a six-month investigation in which the NGO was able to confirm the deaths of another 105,015 people, whose deaths could not be verified beforehand.
At least 42,103 civilians, including 2,748 children, are included in the new figure released Tuesday.
The Observatory indicated that the nearly 500,000 dead do not include the 47,000 citizens who lost their lives to torture in the prisons of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who last week won the presidential elections and won his fourth term for the next seven years.
In addition to the dead, more than two million Syrian citizens were injured of varying severity or suffer permanent disabilities, according to the NGO, which added that another 13 million were left homeless.
After a decade of conflict, Syria is mired in a severe economic crisis and shortages of basic commodities such as fuel and bread.
According to UN data, more than 80% of Syrians live below the poverty line; more than 11 million out of a population of just over 17 million are in need of humanitarian aid; 60% cannot afford one meal a day and 6.2 million are displaced in the country, in addition to almost as many who have left.
