SOHR: Syria’s war claimed 3,700 lives in 2021, lowest annual death toll in 10 years

On Dec 23, 2021

Syria’s ongoing war has claimed a total of 3,746 lives this year, the lowest death toll in its history, according to recent data by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Wednesday, December 22.

The SOHR figures indicate that 1,505 of the casualties were civilians, which included 360 children.

By far, this is the lowest figure of casualties since the war in Syria began. The numbers confirm the downward trend of the death toll from last year, with 6,800 deaths reported in 2018, compared with over 10,000 deaths in 2019.

According to the Observatory, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in the UK with extensive sources throughout Syria, landmines, and various other explosive remnants has killed 297 people in 2021.

The Landmine Monitor, a global initiative dedicated to monitoring progress in eradicating landmines, cluster munitions, and other explosive remnants of warfare, reported in November that Syria had now surpassed Afghanistan in the number of fatalities attributed to landmines and other explosive remnants of warfare.

Syria’s ongoing conflict, which broke out in 2011 after the violent repression of anti-regime protests, has subsided in the past two years.
While Russian-backed regime forces occasionally attack opposition militants in the northwest opposition enclave of Idlib, the cease-fire agreement has mostly held.

Daesh members, who fled underground after being defeated in 2019, have also been responsible for deadly hit-and-run attacks in eastern Syria.

To date, the Syrian conflict has claimed over half a million lives and has resulted in the largest conflict-induced displacement since World War II.