BEIJING -- UN officials say an estimated 5 thousand Syrians are dying every month in the country?s civil war and the refugee outflow is escalating at a frightening rate.
The UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, told the Security Council that serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity are the rule in today?s Syria. He said the extremely high rate of killings demonstrates the drastic deterioration of the conflict.
The head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres said nearly 1.8 million refugees are registered in countries around Syria. Two-thirds have fled since the beginning of 2013, an average of over 6 thousand daily.
UN humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos said at least 6.8 million Syrians require urgent humanitarian assistance. She accused the government and opposition of "deliberately" failing to protect civilians in many cases.
