The opposing groups demanding the President to step down consist of political parties, rebel fighters and people living in exile. Others are groups who simply try to avoid the violence and insist on a peaceful political solution to the crisis. Despite, the opposing groups President Assad and his government are still supported by many people in Syria. Furthermore, Syria is also a religiously mixed country which has affected the wider Sunni-Shite tension within the Middle-East due to an increase on sectarian nature of violence in various areas of Syria.
The Syrian civil war has resulted to approximately 9.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and more than 2.8 million people who have fled to their neighbouring countries with 5.5 million being children that are affected by the crisis. Lebanon hosts most of the Syrian refugees followed by Jordon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Women and children make up three-quarter of the refugee population and most refugees require aid arriving with only clothes on their backs.
The psychological impact on Syrian citizens is inevitable as they’re exposed to daily destruction in the war zone. The children in particular will be severely affected by witnessing or experiencing destruction of the country, torture, physical injuries, arrests and the loss of family. This will ultimately affect the human psyche and affect them for years to come. The impact of war on children can result to behavioural disorders, personality disorders, fear, insecurity, severe anxiety and isolation.
Psychologists state that one of the most dangerous effects of war is that children suffer a form of chronic phobia of persons or things in relation to the events they witnessed, such as soldiers, sirens and planes
Psychologized / June 2014