UN calls Syria 'worst humanitarian disaster' since Cold War

Syrian civil war is more brutal and destructive than the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has turned into the worst humanitarian disaster since the end of the cold war, the United Nations has said.

The statement was made by Antonio Guterres, the UN's high commissioner for refugees, while marking World Refugee Day on Thursday.

The war has so far produced 1.6 million refugees and millions more internally displaced children and adults.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, about five million Syrians, or a quarter of the population, could have fled to neighboring countries by the end of the year.

Guterres spent World Refugee Day in Jordan to bring attention to both the plight of Syria's refugees and the challenges they pose to the countries that take them in.

He said that Jordan was now home to more than a half-million Syrians. Angelina Jolie, who is a special envoy for UNHCR, was also in Jordan to mark the day.

At a press conference at the Zaatari refugee camp, with a population of 185,000, the size of a small city, Jolie noted that Syrian refugees left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their back.

But she added that they left behind a country in which millions of people are displaced, suffering hunger, deprivation, and fear, the report added.