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Satellite imagery showing the number of lights visible over Syria in March 2011 and in February 2015. 83% of all the lights in Syria have gone out since the start of the conflict there.
Image courtesy of #WithSyria
83% (Eighty-three percent) of all the lights in Syria have gone out since the start of the conflict there, a global coalition of humanitarian and human rights organisations has revealed ahead of the fourth anniversary on March 15.
Analysing satellite images, scientists based at Wuhan University in China, in co-operation with the #WithSyria coalition of 130 non-governmental organisations, have shown that the number of lights visible over Syria at night has fallen by 83% since March 2011.
“Four years since this crisis began, Syria’s people have been plunged into the dark: destitute, fearful, and grieving for the friends they have lost and the country they once knew, ” said David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. “Four years since the crisis began, there is at present very little light in this tunnel. Over two hundred thousand people have been killed and a staggering eleven million have been forced to flee their homes. Syrians deserve much better from the international community - it is past time to show that we have not given up and will work with them to turn the lights back on...”
“Satellite imagery is the most objective source of data showing the devastation of Syria on a national scale”,said Dr Xi Li, lead researcher on the project. “ Taken from 500 miles above the earth, these images help us understand the suffering and fear experienced by ordinary Syrians every day, as their country is destroyed around them. In the worst-affected areas, like Aleppo, a staggering 97% of the lights have gone out. The exceptions are the provinces of Damascus and Quneitra, near the Israeli border, where the decline in light has been 35% and 47% respectively.”
The #WithSyria coalition also today released a hard-hitting film and launched a global petition at withsyria.com that calls on world leaders to ‘turn the lights back on in Syria’ by:
Prioritising a political solution with human rights at its heart;
Boosting the humanitarian response both for those inside Syria and refugees, including through increased resettlement ;
Insisting that all parties put an end to attacks on civilians and stop blocking aid.