MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGIONAL OVERVIEW During 2016, millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa saw their lives thrown into turmoil, torment and tragedy, and their homes and livelihoods destroyed, by unrelenting state repression and continuing armed conflicts that were marked on all sides by appalling crimes and abuses. So intense was the political and human rights crisis that tens of thousands risked their lives in perilous attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea rather than remain in the region. In Syria, more than five years of fighting had resulted in the biggest human-made humanitarian crisis of our time, and the armed conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Yemen also took a heavy toll on civilians. Armed conflict and repression exploited and exacerbated long-standing fault lines and increased political and religious polarization, further undermining respect for human rights. ARMED CONFLICT The human consequences of more than five years of conflict in Syria were, frankly, incalculable. There was no clear or evident formula sufficient to assess the true scale and dimensions of the suffering caused to Syria’s population – the deaths and injuries, the devastation and dislocation of families and livelihoods, or the destruction of homes, property, historical sites and religious and cultural icons. Only raw statistics on the numbers killed or displaced and images of the destruction in cities such as Aleppo gave some indication of the enormous scale and intensity of the crisis. By the end of the year, the conflict had caused the deaths of more than 300,000 people and the forcible displacement of more than 11 million others, 48 including 6.6 million who remained internally displaced and 4.8 million who had fled to other countries to seek refuge. All the forces engaged in the conflict continued to commit war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law, flagrantly disregarding the obligation of all parties to protect civilians. Syrian government forces repeatedly conducted indiscriminate attacks, dropping barrel bombs and other explosives and firing imprecise artillery shells into civilian residential areas controlled by opposition fighters. They also continued to besiege such areas, causing further civilian deaths from lack of adequate food and medicine. Government forces also carried out direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, relentlessly bombing hospitals and other medical facilities and, on at least one occasion, apparently attacking a UN humanitarian relief convoy. Russian forces allied with the Syrian government continued to carry out air strikes on opposition-held areas, causing thousands of civilian deaths and injuries and destroying civilian homes and infrastructure. As the year closed, the conflict appeared to have reached a decisive phase after government and allied forces wrested control of Aleppo city from opposition forces. In December, a ceasefire agreement between government and some opposition forces, reached under Russian and Turkish auspices, appeared to open the way for new peace talks and the UN Security Council unanimously reiterated its call for all parties to the conflict to allow the “rapid, safe and unhindered” delivery of humanitarian aid across Syria. In areas that the Syrian government controlled or recaptured, security forces continued to suppress all opposition, detaining thousands, many in conditions of enforced disappearance that denied their families any information on their whereabouts, conditions or fate. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees continued to be widespread; many died as a result. Armed groups fighting the Syrian government and each other also committed Amnesty International Report 2016/17