Crisis in Syria: How to help

The political shifts in Syria that took place over the final weeks of 2024 led to a new reality that continued to develop throughout 2025: More than 3.4 million refugees and IDPs returned home to rebuild their lives after years away, while other parts of the country continue to face sporadic attacks. The need for humanitarian aid in Syria remains close to an all-time high, with 16.5 million people requiring support n 2026. This is 26% higher than needs in 2018.

Learn more about the crisis in Syria.

Hundreds of thousands of families have faced conflicting emotions in the last year as they’ve returned home (many after more than a decade away) only to find their hometowns reduced to rubble. Many are still living in tents on top of the rubble that was once their homes. 

Local infrastructure is also severely compromised, with many communities going without electricity, sanitation, and water supply networks (fully half of all Syrians lack access to clean and safe water). Schools, hospitals, and markets and bakeries have all been destroyed or partially destroyed, leaving essential services unavailable.

With ongoing violence in certain areas of the country, there were also new displacements in 2025, with approximately 150,000 moving across northeast Syria to flee bouts of conflict in Aleppo.

What’s more, the number of Syrians who have returned home are still only a fraction of the total displacement caused by more than a decade of crisis: As of December 2025, the UNHCR still recorded more than 5.4 million refugees (still leaving Syria the world’s largest refugee crisis as we entered 2026). An additional 5.5 million Syrians remain internally-displaced as of this month. Many are afraid to return home with so much about the future still uncertain.

The whole of the Syria is also facing the worst drought conditions in 36 years, with the Food and Agriculture Organization predicting that wheat harvests will fall 70% short of expectations. This could leave over 16 million people in the country unable to meet their nutritional requirements.

Before 2011, Syria had a sizable middle-class population, with 33% of the country living below the national poverty line and 11% living below the international poverty line. During the conflict, those numbers have surged, with 90% of the country living in poverty and 66% living in extreme poverty.

Syria continues to face a food security emergency, with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) estimating that 6.99 million people will be facing crisis levels of hunger through April. These conditions, which affect 25% of the country, have been brought on by conflict-related damage to irrigation systems and infrastructure, shifts in governance, and three years of drought conditions.