Over 4 mln Syrians flee war-torn country: UNHCR

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported on Thursday that some 4,013,000 people have now fled the conflict which has been raging in Syria since March 2011, making the war UNHCR's worst crisis in almost 25 years.

UNHCR indicated that the Syrian refugee population is the largest exodus witnessed since 1992 when the number of Afghan refugees reached 4.6 million.

Based on current trends, experts predict that the situation will continue to worsen, with some 4.27 million Syrian refugees expected to be forced to flee the country by the end of this year.

"This is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation. It is a population that deserves the support of the world but is instead living in dire conditions and sinking deeper into abject poverty," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.

Data shows that 1,805,255 Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey, while 249,726 Syrians have taken refuge in Iraq, 629,128 in Jordan, 132,375 in Egypt, 1,172,753 in Lebanon, and 24,055 elsewhere in North Africa.

These figures come against the backdrop of a protracted humanitarian crisis as the war, now in its fifth year, is intensifying and the number of refugees is rising -- over 24,000 Syrians, mainly women and children, fled to Turkey from Tel Abyad and other parts of northern Syria in June 2015 alone.

According to figures, an additional 7.6 million people are internally displaced within the country, many of them living in abject conditions and in locations which are difficult to access.

Furthermore, UNHCR reported that only around a quarter of this year's appeal of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars had been received as of June, further jeopardizing the lives of millions amid cuts in food aid, the population's increasing inability to afford lifesaving health services and the lack of education for children. Enditem