INFO:

February 2018 footage of a rescue mission in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, following an aerial bombing. The footage was provided by the Syria Civil Defense (White Helmets), a group of volunteer rescue workers. Since its outbreak in March 2011, the conflict in Syria has cost the lives of nearly 500,000 people, displaced millions more, and involved numerous atrocities and crimes against humanity. The result of this conflict is a humanitarian catastrophe of staggering proportions. Every day, Syrian men, women, and children are falling victim to the constant bombardment of their neighborhoods, schools, markets, and hospitals. They are being subjected to starvation, exposure, preventable diseases, and lack of medical care; to enforced disappearances; to chemical weapons attacks—which are banned under international law—and to torture, rape, and killings. The rapidly rising number of Syrian refugees is over 5.5 million, and another 6.1 million are internally displaced.