2.5 million displaced in Syria crisis The figure they are using is 2.5 million. If anything, they believe it could be more, this is a very conservative estimate," Melissa Fleming, chief spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in Geneva. Over the past year-and-a-half thousands of families fled from Homs, Deraa, Hama and other cities that suffered from sustained bombardments to the Syrian capital Damascus, that had until recently remained relatively insulated from the violence. Across the country, thousands of people have been forced to sleep outdoors. The UN has said it expects to provide aid, including blankets, clothing and cooking kits, to some 500,000 people in the war-torn country by the end of the year. But the widespread violence is making distribution inside Syria increasingly difficult. Up to 13,000 blankets that were destroyed by fire in an Aleppo warehouse apparently hit by a shell and truck carrying another 600 blankets was hijacked on its way to Adra outside Damascus, said Mrs Fleming. The UNHCR has temporarily withdrawn about half of its 12 staff from north-eastern Hasakah province, an area on the Turkish border where battles have raged around the town of Ras al-Ain. In total, UNHCR has 350 staff in Syria working out of Damascus, the northern battleground of Aleppo and Hasakeh. The UN has said that it believes up to four million people inside Syria will need humanitarian aid by early next year.