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UN agency calls for more funding for Yarmouk camp in Syria

Xinhua, April 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Friday called for an immediate funding of 30 million U.S. dollars to provide life-sustaining assistance to an estimated 18,000 civilians from war-battered Yarmouk camp, including 3,500 children, said a UN spokesperson at a daily briefing here.

This emergency call for funds forms part of the UNRWA Syria Crisis Appeal, which provides critical humanitarian support to 480, 000 Palestine refugees throughout Syria and to those displaced to Lebanon and Jordan, said associate spokeswoman Eri Kaneko.

Over the past days, UNRWA has significantly expanded its response in areas neighboring Yarmouk, where civilians from Yarmouk have sought shelter.

On Thursday, UNRWA sent a fourth distribution mission to Yalda, an area the Agency previously had not had presence. However, despite intermittent distributions of humanitarian aid, the situation in Yarmouk is one of extraordinary misery, Kaneko said.

Set up as a refugee camp for Palestinians in the 1950s, Yarmouk slowly evolved into a neighborhood over the years, but it has been engulfed in the Syrian conflict since 2012. Earlier this month, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched attacks on Yarmouk, aiming to seize the camp from rivaling rebels. The offensive of ISIS worsened the already appalling conditions for its residents.

The escalating conflict has caused many residents to flee Yarmouk, which is in Damascus, the Syrian national capital, and UNRWA, consequently, expanded its humanitarian cover to provide for surrounding areas as well. Endite