Quixplained: what are humanitarian corridors? | Russia-Ukraine war

Nearly 6.5 million people have been displaced inside Ukraine while 3.2 million have already fled the country, according to the United Nations.

The escape of many of these people was facilitated by creation of human corridors.

Human corridors are safe passages created in a war zone by putting hostilities on hold for a short period of time either to allow civilians to flee via pre-meditated routes or to allow entry of urgent humanitarian aid.

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They are created by either of the warring countries or by the international community.

While these corridors help people leave hostilities of war behind, there have been cases of ceasefire violations. Initial attempts to set up such corridors in the Mariupol failed because Russia reportedly continued to bomb the city.

Humanitarian corridors are common feature in war or conflict zones.

The UN had set up ‘safe areas’ during the Bosnian Wars in 1990s but the civilians had still come under attack.

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Russian and Syrian militaries created such passage for people to flee by temporarily halting shelling on rebel-held territories in Syria. The largest corridor was for eastern Aleppo in late 2016.

Humanitarian corridors were also created during heavy fighting between Israeli forces and the Hamas in Gaza.

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