Inside Syria the fighting has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century. According to the UN, some 12m people, over half of the population, need assistance. The economy is a wreck: four out of five Syrians live in poverty and unemployment is over 50%. The World Health Organisation says 57% of Syria's public hospitals have been damaged, with 37% knocked out of service. (Bashar Assad's regime has targeted many of the facilities.) Most of the country's doctors have fled. Polio returned for a time. The life-expectancy of Syrians, on average, is now around 55, 20 years shorter than it was before the war.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, says the country has lost the equivalent of four decades of human development. Over 4,000 schools have been damaged or repurposed. Nearly 3m Syrian children no longer attend class. Power output is down by 56%, according to the electricity ministry. That, combined with migration, has made the country 83% darker at night than before the war.