The Bashar Assad regime and its backer Russia are responsible for 91% of the death toll since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported on Saturday.

“This slaughter is a crime against humanity, and the #SyrianRegime must be held accountable for all his crimes,” the monitoring group said on social media.

According to the SNHR’s data, the total number of people killed from March 2011 to June 2022 stands at 228,893. Out of this number, 207,319 people were killed by the regime, Russia and Iran-backed militias while the rest were killed by other parties including Daesh and the Syrian wing of the PKK, the YPG.

The SNHR also specified that of the 29,791 children killed during the war, 84% lost their lives at the hand of the regime and Russia.

Meanwhile, the White Helmets Syrian civil defense group on the same day stated that one civilian was killed in an attack by the regime on opposition-held areas.

“Today, a civilian was injured by regime's artillery shelling that targeted the villages of #SahelAlghab, north #Hama, causing a major fire in agricultural land,” the group said, adding that artillery shelling also hit Maret Nassan east of northwestern Idlib province but that no casualties were reported there.

For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further gains of territory and crushing the opposition. With this aim, the regime has for years bombed civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country's population.

Now, the people living in the country’s northwest are facing a new threat as the United Nations mandate for the last remaining border gate to the area from Turkey is about to expire in July.

The Bab al-Hawa crossing on the border between northern Syria and southern Turkey is the only one through which U.N. relief can be brought into the opposition-held Idlib region without navigating areas controlled by the Syrian regime.

But many fear the crossing will close to U.N. trucks from July 10, because Russia, an ally of the Assad regime, has threatened to use its Security Council veto power to block the resolution's renewal.

The resolution was last extended in January for six months.

Observers say Russia is using the threat of closure of the aid entry point as a bargaining chip in the face of punishing Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has argued aid can instead transit via regime-controlled parts of the country across conflict lines.

But aid groups have been reluctant to shift their massive operations to go through areas held by the Assad regime, itself subject to sanctions.

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing last year bound for the Idlib region, the last opposition bastion in Syria and home to around 3 million people.

U.N. cross-border aid must continue to enter Syria, even if Russia vetoes it, the SNHR urged in another report on Friday.

“Russia is a party to the Syrian conflict, using its U.N. veto even while it and the Syrian regime continue to perpetrate the crime of forced displacement, which constitutes a crime against humanity, with the report further stressing that millions of internally displaced Syrians in northwest Syria are in dire need of UN cross-border aid,” it said.

The 13-page report underlined that despite the difficult living conditions, the majority of displaced people have refused to return to areas controlled by the regime.

The report added that “Russia cannot invoke the concept of sovereignty and the consent of the Syrian regime because it is the leading cause of the displacement of the millions of deliberately displaced people whose suffering it is now using for leverage, and does not care about delivering U.N. aid to them.”

Speaking on the issue to Anadolu Agency (AA), Philippe Leclerc, the representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Turkey, said the mandate must be extended in July.

“We want all heads of U.N. institutions operating in Syria, member countries and especially the five permanent members of the security council to agree to this decision.

Leclerc reminded that more than 3 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid and that 2,2 million of those are displaced people.

He added that Turkey is in terms of humanitarian aid an exemplary country, showing the path for others./DS