The Syrian conflict continues to take its toll. A migrant boat trying to flee from the Syrian civil war and reach European shores capsized, killing 37 people including 10 children.
The New York Times reported that photos of the accident's aftermath show bodies of little children washed ashore. The 56-foot long boat was said to have come from a Turkish resort town called Ayvacik, and that it was carrying Syrian refugees as well as people from Afghanistan and Myanmar.
As of the present, there are still no information on who exactly the victims were and what caused the boat to capsize. According to the report, crossing the sea during the winter season is more dangerous, with more than 200 people already drowning in the Aegean Sea for the first month of 2016.
"Deaths on this route are increasing at an alarming rate," the International Organization for Migration spokesman Joel Millman said during a news briefing. The United Nations reports that the Syrian civil war has already taken the lives of over 250,000 people, as of today. The UN has also invited representatives from both the Syrian government and the rebel groups to meet at Geneva to settle their differences.
News.com.au says that the Syrian conflict is a civil war between the Syrian government and the FSA or the Free Syrian Army - rebel camps that want to replace the current government. "Local areas formed their own militias with the aim of toppling the government without any co-ordination or centralised command or control," former peacekeeper in Syria Dr Rodger Shanahan told News.com.au.
The Free Syrian Army's reason for fighting is due to their perceived failure of the current government to give its people the promise of new and better economic and political reforms, as well as their violations of human rights. However, the FSA has also allowed other people with their own Islamic agendas to join their camps in order to gain more strength against the government in this ongoing Syrian conflict.
