Geneva
The war in Syria has killed 350,209 fully identified individuals, according to a new count published Friday by the United Nations, which warned the real total of deaths would be far higher.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) included only fatalities identifiable by a full name, with a place of death and an established date, from March 2011 to March 2021.
“We assess this figure of 350,209 as statistically sound, based as it is on rigorous work,” High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council.
“It is not — and should not be seen as — a complete number of conflict-related killings in Syria during this period.
“It indicates a minimum verifiable number, and is certainly an under-count of the actual number of killings.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the benchmark for counting victims of the conflict, published a report on June 1 raising the death toll to 494,438 since the start of the violent crackdown on anti-regime protests in 2011.
The Observatory revised up by 105,000 its previous death toll from March 2021, following months of investigation based on documents and sources on the ground.—AN
