UN says Syria fighting has displaced 280,000 since November 27

Syrian anti government fighters patrol the captured central-west city of Hama on December 6, 2024. In little over a week, the offensive by rebel forces has seen Syria's second city Aleppo and strategically located Hama fall from President Bashar al-Assad's control for the first time since the civil war began in 2011. [AFP]

The escalation in fighting in Syria has displaced around 280,000 people in just over a week, the United Nations said on Friday, warning that numbers could swell to 1.5 million.

"The figure we have in front of us is 280,000 people since November 27," Samer AbdelJaber, head of emergency coordination at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters in Geneva.