Non-international armed conflict (2011 – )
International armed conflict (2014 – )
Estimated number persons in need of humanitarian assistance: 14,6 million in 2022
Hostilities in Syria can be traced back to March 2011 as a wave of non-violent popular protests demanding democratic reforms, forming part of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ that swept parts of the Arabic-speaking world. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime responded with violent repression of protesters, quickly dashing protestors’ hopes of spearheading democratic reforms. For some months, the uprising remained primarily non-violent and overwhelmingly non-sectarian. However, by July 2011, defectors from the military, including military conscripts, announced the formation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), aiming to overthrow the Assad regime by force, and the situation devolved into a bloody civil war.
The regime suffered many early losses, as much of the country rebelled and many army officers defected to the opposition. Limited by the fact that it did not have sufficient force for ground assaults, government forces sealed off the opposition-controlled enclaves, with its primary weapons being deprivation and fear, by laying siege to civilian areas for months and sometime years. The method of “kneel (surrender) or starve”, policed by government troops and militia, combined with air raids and artillery bombardment were used to force capitulation in opposition-held areas. Government forces besieged over 40 cities during the conflict, including in the suburbs of Damascus and Homs, Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta, just to name a few.
While the al-Assad regime vied with fragmented opposition forces, al-Qaeda-linked groups and Da’esh/ISIL gained a foothold. They would also conduct a number of siege operations, contributing to the dire humanitarian situation.
The increasingly complicated conflict drew in numerous external actors to Syria’s domestic political arena, with support provided to different groups in the form of funding and weaponry. The US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan and UAE supported opposition groups, while the al-Assad regime was assisted by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah of Lebanon, and Iraqi and Afghan Shiite militias. The tide of the war decisively changed in 2015 when the Assad government benefitted from increased support from Iran and Hezbollah and Russian intervention. Russian aircraft and artillery escalated the level of destruction still further.
While there has been somewhat of a reprieve in active fighting as the al-Assad regime gradually regained territorial control of large parts of the country, to 2022, the conflict has caused and continues to cause immense suffering to the civilian population.
Food insecurity during the conflict
Prior to the conflict, Syria was a lower middle-income country, in which agricultural production played and important role. In the early 2000s, the country suffered a number of economic shocks, droughts, and mismanagement of rural water resources in the northeast, which contributed to a crisis in the agricultural sector leading to food insecurity, including among farmers. Before 2011, the main humanitarian assistance programming was aimed at Iraqi refugees. Economic reforms lead to an overhaul of key sectors that benefitted the ruling elite and their affiliates allowing corruption to run rampant.
“… in 2021 ‘fewer people had sufficient access to nutritious food in Syria than at any point during the last ten years of the crisis.”
By October 2015, a WFP assessment estimated that one third of Syrians were food insecure, amounting to approximately 6,3 million people, and a total of 8,3 million were in need of humanitarian assistance. The Assessment also predicted that more than half of the Syrian population was at risk of food insecurity. In 2017 the number of people in need of humanitarian aid increased to 13.1 million, of which 5.6 million faced acute humanitarian needs due to compounding factors, including displacement, the effect of hostilities, and restricted access to basic commodities. OCHA noted how conflict and insecurity continued to be the main driver of humanitarian needs in the country.
According to the WFP, in 2021 “fewer people had sufficient access to nutritious food in Syria than at any point during the last ten years of the crisis”.
In April 2022, OCHA reported overall 14,6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, an increase of 1,2 million from 2021. Syria also hosts the biggest internally displaced population globally, with 6,9 million internally displaced persons, while refugees who have fled abroad, the majority to neighbouring countries, number some 5,6 million.
Evidence of starvation crimes
The Assad regime’s widespread use of the kneel and starve strategy in siege warfare aimed at reducing opposition-held enclaves to surrender consisted of depriving the encircled area and its inhabitants of food and other objects indispensable to survival, conducting targeted aerial bombardment and attacks on bakeries, healthcare facilities, markets and other objects indispensable to conduct livelihood activities. In addition, government forces restricted or denied the delivery of humanitarian aid into besieged areas. To a lesser extent, also opposition forces, such as Da’esh/ISIL and the al-Nusra front, conducted siege operations.
Siege Watch estimated that approximately 2.5 million people have lived and experienced siege or siege-like conditions between 2011 and 2019 and documented 25 different sieges, with 22 of them being conducted by government forces. Long-term siege operations in Syria commenced in 2012, initially with the aim of weakening and isolating rebel-held enclaves, by restricting and controlling the movement of people, and ultimately by restricting the flow of food, water, electricity, other basic commodities, and humanitarian aid.
GRC’s Policy Paper on Accountability for Starvation Crimes in Syria (2019) analysed the use of starvation as a method of warfare in the contexts of the sieges of Eastern Ghouta, Aleppo and Deir Alzor and across Syria’s prison system, known today for its barbaric torture tactics.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) in its 2021 report also found that government forces, their affiliates and other warring parties prioritised methods of warfare minimising risk for their fighters, rather than for civilians. The COI concluded that civilians have endured ‘modern day sieges in which perpetrators deliberately starved the population along medieval scripts and indefensible and shameful restrictions on humanitarian aid’.
Impunity for starvation crimes
In 2011 the UN Human Rights Council established the COI to investigate alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in Syria, including establishing the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations, identify those responsible with a view to hold perpetrators accountable.
“… notwithstanding notable efforts by the UN, States and civil society organisations, pervasive impunity still characterises the Syrian conflict.”
In parallel to action taken by the Human Rights Council, in December 2016 the UN General Assembly created the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 (IIIM). The IIIM’s mandate is to collect, preserve, and analyse evidence to a criminal standard and to prepare case files including ‘relevant information, documentation and evidence in the Mechanism’s possession, both inculpatory and exculpatory, pertaining to the imputable crimes and to the mode or modes of criminal liability recognized under international law, including command or superior responsibility’. The IIIM serves as bridge to potential future criminal proceedings in domestic, regional or international fora. The IIIM currently has four open case files, including on unlawful attack incidents that occurred in 2015 and 2017 involving the alleged use of chemical and conventional weapons, including against medical facilities.
Several universal jurisdiction investigations and prosecutions have been conducted and are underway in a number of jurisdictions, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
However, as highlighted during the November 2021 UNSC Arria-Formula meeting on Accountability in Syria, notwithstanding notable efforts by the UN, States and civil society organisations, pervasive impunity still characterises the Syrian conflict. Starvation crimes have not been comprehensively addressed and must form clearer and explicit part of UN and other bodies’ investigative mandates and form part and parcel of domestic and international investigations and prosecutions.
Read more on the use of starvation by warring parties in Syria in GRC’s Policy Paper on Accountability for Starvation Crimes: Syria
UNSC resolutions addressing the humanitarian situation in Syria: UNSC 2139 (2014); UNSC 2165 (2014); UNSC 2191 (2014); UNSC 2258 (2015); UNSC 2328 (2016); UNSC 2332 (2016); UNSC 2393 (2017); UNSC 2449 (2018); UNSC 2504 (2020); UNSC 2585 (2021).
