Syria is slowly dying out
(BRUSSELS2) Since the beginning of the conflict, 4 years ago, 83% of the lights visible in the Syrian sky have gone out. This is the conclusion reached by a researcher from the University of Wuhan in China who has analyzed satellite images of the Syrian sky since 2011, at the request of 130 NGOs, including Crisis Group. Lights that went out because civilians have taken the road to exile, because the infrastructure has been gradually devastated by the violence of the fighting, but also because Syrian civilians on the ground are hiding from night air attacks on residential neighborhoods denounce the NGOs.
The detail of the disappearances of the lights, province by province, is... illuminating:
| provinces | Idlib | Al Hasakah | Al Raqqah | Al Suwayda | Quneitra | Latakia | Aleppo | Hama | Homs | Turn on | Deir ez-zor | Ref Dimashq | tartus | Damascus |
| Percentage of lights lost | -96% | -77% | -96% | -80% | -47% | -88% | -97% | -87% | -49% | -74% | -90% | -78% | -87% | -33% |
To this observation, we must add the study written on behalf of the UNWRA (the UN office for the reception of Palestinian refugees) and the UNDP, which a reader reminded me of, which gives some data frightening: in four years of war, the lifespan of the average Syrian would have increased from 74 to 55 years! And the living population has decreased by a sixth during this same period... Download here
(NGV)
