[Baldwin:] U.N. officials are sounding the alarm on what they call the biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st century. It comes as the Syrian regime has unleashed a brutal escalation of violence over the past few months leaving 900,000 people displaces and more than half of them are children. CNN's Arwa Damon is one of the few Western journalists who has been in Idlib province in recent days. And she now reports from just across the border in Turkey that many of the Syrians are afraid of a widespread massacre by their own government.
[Arwa Damon, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] The numbers of those displace, those trying to outrun the encroaching war and violence are jumping dramatically by the day and 60 percent of them are children. Right now, we are talking about more than half a million children who have been displaced since December. There is not enough humanitarian assistance. The scale of this crisis is by far greater than what humanitarian organizations are able to supply. Temperatures are freezing. And every day the Assad regime is gaining even more ground despite statements being made by Turkey warning Bashar al-Assad's forces to move back to that previously agreed upon demarcation line, that was meant in theory some two days ago to create what was supposed to be a de-escalation zone inside of Idlib. Listen to words of what the UN's Humanitarian Emergency Coordinator said talking about what's happening inside. He called it the biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st century. It's not just the violence that the people are fleeing from, they are also deathly afraid of being surrounded by the regime's forces. They are afraid of a widespread massacre. They are afraid of being detained by the regime forces and disappearing into the regime's prison system. They are afraid of the regime moving in and cutting off the roads that lead to the border crossings with Turkey, not because the Turkish border is empty, but because they know that what humanitarian supplies are able to move in, are moving in from the two vital border crossings. They're afraid of the cold, of the children getting sick. There's not enough hospitals. There's not enough medical facilities. They, too, are being bombed, are under fire and are being forced to shut down as this regime is continuing with this ground offensive. And of course being backed by the Russians, especially by the Russian air power. People inside asked us time and time again where are we supposed to run, now that there is nowhere truly safe to go to. Arwa Damon, CNN, Hatay, Turkey.
[Baldwin:] Arwa, thank you for shining the light on all of these, you know, children. If you'd like to help people in Syria, CNN has a list of vetted organizations working on the ground there. You can find that list, just go to CNN.comimpact. I'm Brooke Baldwin and thank you for being here.