At least 37 million people in various countries around the world were forced to leave their homes as a result of the US-declared war on international terrorism in 2001. This is evidenced by data released on Tuesday from the Brown University, located in the US state of Rhode Island.
A research project called "The Price of War" clarifies that the report is mainly about civilians who have fled Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, the Philippines, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria due to large-scale fighting involving US forces. However, as noted in the 30-page publication, given the smaller anti-terrorist operations of US troops in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Niger the total number of IDPs can reach 59 million people.
Experts of the Brown University stressed that about 25.3 million people, including children born to refugee parents, subsequently returned to their homeland. Some of them ended up in their home country as a result of deportation from other states.
"Our data shows that the US invasion of these countries was a terrible disaster," concluded one of the authors of the study, Professor of Anthropology at the American University in Washington, David Vine, in an interview with The New York Times.
The United States declared war on international terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The longest the US has been fighting is 19 years in Afghanistan. At the peak of the campaign in 2010-2013, the number of forces of Washington and its allies in this country exceeded 150 thousand people. The main US and NATO combat forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2014. It is planned that the United States troops will finally leave the Afghan territory next year.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS