93,000 Killed in Syria, With No End in Sight

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights asked a respected statistical analysis NGO to come up with a estimated death toll from the Syrian conflict. The last report, published in January, found some 60,000 deaths through November 2012. Today, that figure was revised upward by more about 30,000. The new figure is 92,901 documented cases of individuals killed. 

An updated analysis carried out by data specialists on behalf of the UN Human Rights Office has led to the compilation of a list of 92,901 documented cases of individuals killed in Syria between March 2011 and the end of April 2013, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay announced Thursday.

“The constant flow of killings continues at shockingly high levels – with more than 5,000 killings documented every month since last July, including a total of just under 27,000 new killings since 1 December,” Pillay said. “Unfortunately, as the study indicates, this is most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher.”

The latest study — which updates an earlier one that compiled some 60,000 documented deaths up to 30 November 2012 — was conducted using a combined list of 263,055 reported killings, fully identified by the name of the victim, as well as the date and location of the death. Any reported killing that did not include at least these three elements was excluded from the list, which was compiled using datasets from eight different sources.

It’s worth noting that this information comes on a diplomatic backdrop of increasing hopelessness for a negotiated solution to this conflict. The Proposed Geneva 2 conference was supposed to happen in June, but now will be pushed back to July — and it is unclear whether or not the main rebel groups will even attend.  In the meantime, European countries are openly arming rebel groups; and Russia is openly arming the government.

A stalled political process combined with an influx of arms from the outside is a recipe for greater violence and more people killed.