The Syrian government ignored most United Nations requests to deliver humanitarian aid to some of its 4.6 million people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in 2015 and only 620,000 received help, according to Stephen O’Brien, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a briefing on the humanitarian situation in Syria on Wednesday.
It comes just two days before UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura is to facilitate intra-Syrian talks in Geneva.
“The continued suffering of the Syrian people cannot be blamed on relief organizations and staff. It is the failure of both the parties and the international community that have allowed this conflict to continue for far too long,” said Stephen O’Brien.
He said over 250,000 people killed, well over a million injured, 6.5 million displaced within Syria, almost 4.6 million refugees, and much of the remaining population – some 13.5 million people – are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
Stephen O’Brien said just 13 inter-agency convoys have been approved by the Syrian government and completed, out of 113 requested. Another 10 percent were approved in principle by the Syrian government, but could not proceed due to a lack of final approval, insecurity or no deal on safe passage, while the UN put three percent on hold due to insecurity. The remaining 75 percent of requests went unanswered.
In 2013, some 2.9 million people were reached through the inter-agency convoy mechanism, but only 620,000 in 2015, said Stephen O’Brien.
“And try as we may, humanitarian action cannot be a substitute for political action. The only solution is through political dialog that reduces and ultimately ends the violence. The key stakeholders in the Syria crisis must do what has never been done up to this point and put people before politics,” said Staffan de Mistura. (CCTV/Reuters)
