World Bank: A quarter of Syrians are destitute after more than a decade of civil war

More than a quarter of Syrians live in extreme poverty, according to a report released by the World Bank, and a devastating civil war that has raged for 13 years has dealt a heavy blow to the economy and pushed millions into poverty.

The World Bank released two new reports on Syria on Saturday, which found that "27 percent of Syrians, or about 5.7 million people, are in extreme poverty."

"Extreme poverty, while virtually non-existent before the conflict, affected more than a quarter of Syrians in 2022," one of the reports said, and is likely to worsen following a major earthquake in Syria last year. The earthquake killed about 6,000 people.

About 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, according to the United Nations, compared with previous estimates of about 2 million people living in abject poverty after more than a decade of war.

Syria's civil war has devastated the country's economy, infrastructure and industry, while Western sanctions have exacerbated the plight of its citizens.

The report noted that neighboring Lebanon's economic collapse at the end of 2019, the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine have eroded the welfare of Syrian families in recent years.

The World Bank notes that "persistent funding shortfalls and limited access to humanitarian assistance" are exacerbating the pressure on Syria's poor, who are already dealing with "soaring prices, reduced access to basic services, and rising unemployment."