United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos on Wednesday appealed to the international community to increase its funding to help 2.5 million Syrians who are in urgent need of basic services such as shelter, food, health care, water and sanitation.
"The humanitarian situation has worsened since my visit in March," Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York. She added that lack of access to those in need and insufficient funding are hampering efforts by UN agencies and their partners to provide assistance.
"We face problems with access to people in need, particularly where there is intense and ongoing fighting, but funding is also holding us back. If we had more resources, we could reach more people, especially as we have established solid partnerships with local non-governmental organizations and with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent," Amos said.
Currently, heavy fighting is reported in Syria, particularly in the country's largest cities of Damascus and Aleppo, between government forces and armed rebels. In addition to those trapped inside Syria, the conflict has forced hundreds of thousands of Syrians to seek refuge in neighboring Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.
More than 18,000 people, mostly civilians, are believed to have been killed and tens of thousands displaced since anti- regime protests broke out in Syria in March 2011. The conflict is now viewed as a civil war by most of the international community.
Amos had been on a three-day visit to Syria and neighboring Lebanon last week to take stock and to discuss ways to increase humanitarian assistance.
"Both those who have fled and their hosts have urgent humanitarian needs due to the widening impact of the crisis on the economy and on people's livelihoods," she said Wednesday.
The UN official said she is particularly concerned about the health conditions in schools, which are being used as shelters for displaced persons, and warned of the negative impact that this would have on children when the new school year starts next month.
"There will be a disruption to the education of thousands of children when the academic year begins in September unless other solutions are found to house the internally displaced," she said.
Amos said UN agencies and their partners have provided food aid to more than 800,000 people over the past month, and delivered relief supplies, such as hygiene kits, blankets and other basic items, to more than 60,000 people during the first two weeks of August.
"But this is not enough. Not when we are dealing with the needs of an estimated 2.5 million people," she stressed.
Amos noted that the appeal by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for $180 million in funds for humanitarian aid in Syria has been only half-funded, and urged international partners to "contribute more generously" to be able to increase assistance.
"We will continue to do everything to support those displaced both inside and outside Syria," Amos said. She also reiterated her call for all those engaged in the conflict to respect civilians and abide by international humanitarian law.
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