Syrian Migrant Crisis Reported To Have Resulted 470,000 Deaths

By Jenn Loro - 12 Feb '16 11:27AM

The Syrian civil war which unexpectedly drags on for five years now has just entered a critical juncture as the conflict now claimed 470, 000 lives or 11.5% of the country's population according to new research findings by the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR).

As the armed conflict rages on, life expectancy in Syria has dropped to 55.4 years- a far cry to the country's pre-war life expectancy of 70 years. The number of the injured is estimated at 1.9 million with overall economic losses roughly valued at $225 billion. About 400, 000 of the nearly half a million dead lost their lives directly to armed violence while the 70, 000 died as a result of inadequate healthcare services, famine, poor sanitation, and poor housing conditions for internally displaced persons and refugees fleeing for their lives.

"We use very rigorous research methods and we are sure of this figure. Indirect deaths will be greater in the future, though most NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and the UN ignore them. We think that the UN documentation and informal estimation underestimated the casualties due to lack of access to information during the crisis, "remarked report author Rabie Nasser as quoted saying by The Guardian.

Meanwhile, foreign ministers from the US, Russia, and representatives from regional powers of the Middle East such Saudi Arabia and Iran are currently having security talks aimed at taming the human cost of the Syrian conflict as its consequential refugee crisis has become a political nightmare for Europe according to a New York Times update.

In another related development, the conflict is seeing a possible change in the current politico-military calculus on multiple sides as Saudi Arabia's announced its plans of sending boots on the ground in Syria to combat ISIS.

"The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against ISIS) may agree to carry out in Syria," said Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri as quoted by Business Insider.