Armed Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis in Syria

Abstract

Armed conflict – whether intra or inter-state – and given the frequency of its occurrence, appears to be one of the realities of the international system. Decades of civilisation seem to have done little or nothing to erase the inherent tendency of humans to resort to violent conflict in a bid to resolve certain issues. This inability, perhaps, reinforces the general belief that conflict is ubiquitous. In the Syrian case, gradual slide into civil war has been the reality since the 2011 uprising. This has been attributed to the Arab Spring. Of interest to this paper, however, is the ensuing humanitarian crisis which is an inevitable outcome of armed conflict. The paper argues that humanitarian crisis is an outcome of the Syrian warfare, given that no war can be prosecuted without recording some collateral damages.