Africa

Africa

OIC to meet Sunday to discuss tragedy of Syrian refugees

11 September 2015 02:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called an emergency meeting in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss the issue of Syrian refugees.

In a Thursday statement, the OIC said the meeting will be held in Jeddah to look into ways of tackling the humanitarian tragedy of the Syrian refugees, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

In an appeal to the international community this week, OIC Secretary-General Iyad Madani called for finding ways to solve the crisis of the Syrian refugees.

Syria fell into a deadly civil war in 2011 after Bashar al-Assad violently suppressed pro-democracy protests.

According to the UN, more than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began.

Roughly half of Syria’s population has been displaced by the violence, with over four million Syrians now seeking refuge in neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

Last week, a three-year-old Syrian child was found dead lying face down in the sand near Turkey’s tourist resort of Bodrum after most of his family drowned while trying to flee to Europe, triggering world outrage.