At least 388,652 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since it erupted in March 2011, a war monitor reported Sunday.

The toll includes 117,388 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added in an update on Sunday, a day before the 10th anniversary of the start of Syria’s crisis.

The Britain-based watchdog said it had documented 22,254 children among the civilian deaths.

In December, the observatory reported that at least 387,118 people had been killed in Syria’s conflict.

That month, the monitor also said at least 6,817 people were killed in Syria in 2020, the lowest annual death toll in the country’s civil war.

The drop in the 2020 fatalities, compared to the previous years, was attributed to what the watchdog called an “international desire” to stop bloodshed in Syria.

A ceasefire has largely held in recent months in north-western Syria as sights have shifted to the global coronavirus outbreak.

However, violence has not totally stopped in the country.

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The deadliest year in the conflict was 2014, when more than 67,000 deaths were documented, according to the observatory.

Around 62 per cent of Syria is under the control of government forces and allied paramilitaries, while the remainder of the territory is divided among Kurdish militias, Turkish-backed rebels and Islamist fighters, the monitor said Sunday.

Syria’s crisis started with peaceful pro-democracy protests on March 15, 2011. It soon evolved into a full-blown conflict, drawing in foreign fighters and powers.

Vanguard News Nigeria