Scores of thousands of civilians across Syria, including children, have been forced to endure a life under siege, with all the hardship and privations that entails. Most of the sieges have been imposed and maintained by military and security forces loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Others have been mounted by opposition and other non-state armed groups. Both sets of sieges have been marked by the commission of war crimes and serious human rights abuses by the besieging forces and sometimes by those under siege.
