DHAKA: At least 120,000 people have been displaced in Syria this month because of fighting.

UN humanitarian officials said, reports Al Jazeera.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that the people fled their homes in Aleppo, Hama and Idlib governorates between October 5 and 22.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that most remain in the three governorates but some have fled to camps near the Turkish border. He said most people in Aleppo moved toward villages and towns in the countryside west of the city.

Dujarric said the displaced Syrians need tents, basic household items, food, water and sanitation services.

He said the UN’s humanitarian partners are scaling up their response, and distribution of cooked and ready-to-eat food has started to those displaced in the three governorates but needs to be stepped up.

The UN report largely matches up with a similar report on Monday by the Norwegian Refugee Council, which estimated that 100,000 Syrians have been displaced in the last three weeks by the recent surge in fighting following the start of an airstrike campaign by the Russian military.

The council said that this new exodus is pressuring already overcrowded and overstretched camps in the country.

In a statement, the group said that the new wave of displacement is mostly from the province of Aleppo, where Syrian government and allied troops, emboldened by Russian airstrikes, began a ground offensive on October 16.

BDST: 1237 HRS, OCT 27, 2015
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