The United Nations said yesterday that about 350,000 Syrians, most of them women and children, have been displaced from Idlib since early December to areas near the Turkish border, due to a new Russian-backed attack on the opposition-held province.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest report that the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, as a result of the "escalation" of hostilities.
"This latest wave of displacement complicates the already difficult humanitarian situation on the ground in Idlib," David Swanson, the regional spokesman for the United Nations, based in Amman, told Reuters.
Russian and Syrian aircraft have resumed bombing civilian areas in the opposition's pocket, two days after the official start of a ceasefire on Sunday, agreed by Turkey and Russia.
UN officials said this month that the humanitarian crisis had worsened with the displacement of thousands of civilians from Idlib, in addition to some 400,000 who fled in previous fighting waves to camps near the Turkish border.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, “Clashes erupted around midnight Wednesday, south of the city of Maarat al-Numan in the southern countryside of Idlib, coinciding with heavy Syrian and Russian raids,” which killed 22 members of the factions.