This week, I had an ooportunity to discuss the situation of Syrians displaced by so many years of war and recent fighting, inside the country or abroad.
Here is a summary of the interview.
Podcast to come and to find here.
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| A family flees from the vicinity of Humaymah village, east of Aleppo, in Syria on 16 January, 2026. © AFP - OMAR HAJ KADOUR |
Syria is a country wrecked by over a decade of civil war and jihadist violence, but the most recent events have led many refugees to try to get back home.
Families have had to flee the region of Aleppo since mid-January 2026. The previously Kurdish-held region of northern Syria was given a deadline by the army, which seeks to expand its control over the area after driving Kurdish forces away.
Ongoing hostilities between government forces and armed groups continue to trigger displacement and protection concerns, especially in northern and southern Syria, as well as coastal areas, according to the UN.
NGOs estimate that over 15 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance in 2026, with funding shortfalls threatening aid operations.
The 2026 Syria Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is only 33.5 percent funded, leaving a $3.2 billion gap.
Health care access remains unreliable, and basic services are severely disrupted. Millions still live in extreme vulnerability, facing displacement, economic hardship, and lack of clean water or protection.
Added to that, a harsh winter and drought-like conditions are exacerbating the crisis, straining resources and increasing needs among the population.
While there is a political transition, reconstruction and recovery efforts are hindered by instability and lack of funding.
Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), was on the ground in Syria where the NGO operates in five governorates, including Aleppo. She told me about the humanitarian situation in Syria, fragile people's needs and how the NGO intends to work further there.
"It is an incredibly fragile moment for Syria," she said. "This is a country where two out of every three Syrians need humanitarian assistance, and 90 percent of the population lives below the poverty line."
Thirteen years of civil war and fighting
Since the fall of the Assad regime, more than 3 million Syrian refugees and IDPs have returned home, but they are returning to cities, towns, and neighborhoods that are in ruins after more than 13 years of civil war.
"Syria has had a new government in place for the last year," Slente continued, "and it's time to sort of recap on our programming here and adapt our programming to the new realities on the ground. A vast percentage of the population here in dire need for humanitarian assistance on the ground. So it was a time for looking into how we can best adapt our programming here to the needs of the people."
These needs are vast, she added, and many people are returning to their homes to find almost nothing: 2 million have returned from internal displacement and about a million people from neighbouring countries.
Many say they are fearful.
"We are afraid that they will attack our regions and that massacres and genocide will occur,' one woman told RFI's reporter in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, on the border with Turkey.
"I hope there will be an agreement and that we will reach a positive resolution to the conflict so that no more bloodshed occurs," a man added.
Vocational training to rebuild hope
The priority for the DRC is now to support the displaced people and the ones who went home with vocational training but also to work on getting rid of all the mines in these areas and similar threats.
"We just finished the training of some of our mine clearance actions," Slente said.
Teams have been trained over recent months, brave Syrians who are now ready to go out and assist with clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in the Syrian territory.
"We are helping build the capacity here of the National Mine Action Centre in the Ministry of Emergencies that needs to coordinate that very big endeavor of clearing Syria from unexploded ordinance and landmines. It means that now we can get more jobs done on the ground with the clearing of mines, getting that out of the field and villages, so that people can actually be safe when they move around the territory."
The Syrian civil war began in 2011 as a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, effectively ending in December 2024 with the fall of the Assad regime. Assad and his family fled to Russia, marking the collapse of over 60 years of Ba’athist rule, but not the suffering of Syrians.
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