Regime offensive in northwest Syria displaces more than 800,000: UN

A Russia-backed Syrian regime offensive on the last major opposition bastion in the country’s northwest has displaced more than 800,000 people since December, the United Nations said on Thursday.

“Of the more than 800,000 people who have been displaced in northwest Syria from 1 December 2019 to 12 February 2020, some 60 percent are estimated to be children,” said the United Nation’s humanitarian coordination office, OCHA.

In a related development, Russia’s foreign ministry on Thursday called on Turkey to refrain from making provocative statements about events in Syria amid rising tensions over the Syrian province of Idlib.