This archive report was first published on 20 December 2019.
On 16 December, air strikes and shelling in southern Idlib intensified, prompting a mass exodus of civilians from the Maaret al-Numan area.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), tens of thousands of civilians have fled the area, with thousands more waiting for the bombardment to ease.
Clashes between Syrian regime forces and armed groups in Idlib, the country's last major opposition bastion, have killed over 80 people in the past 24 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Friday.
Warplanes from Russia pounded areas around Maaret al-Numan and the nearby town of Saraqeb with a series of air strikes, further exacerbating the situation.
As the flare-up triggered a wave of displacement from nearby areas, OCHA highlighted the challenges faced by civilians, including a shortage of fuel for private vehicles and extremely dangerous roads.
"Since the evening of 19 December, residents of Maaret al-Numan town began to communicate to the humanitarian community that they wanted to move to safety, but were unable to move due to the heavy aerial bombardment," OCHA said.
As of Friday, hundreds of families had fled north, with an estimated 163,000 people in and around Maaret al-Numan.
