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UN official says "disappointed" at pace humanitarian aid being delivered in Syria

Xinhua, April 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Senior Advisor to UN Special Envoy for Syria Jan Egeland said Thursday he was both disappointed and disheartened at the pace at which humanitarian aid has been delivered in war-torn Syria last week.

"We have been working for nearly two months. April was supposed to be our best month, it's not looking so so far," he said, following the seventh weekly humanitarian taskforce meeting.

"We had five convoys ready to go the last four days, all of the five convoys could not go, 287,000 people therefore did not get their relief in hard-to-reach areas or besieged areas," he added.

Four out of the five convoys were not given access by the Syrian government which is locked in a deadly five-year conflict with opposition factions seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Members of the taskforce had initially set out to provide over 200,000 people with assistance last week. Only 45,000 were reached however.

Though both sides are guilty of not fully cooperating with humanitarian organisations on the ground, the diplomat reminded that 15 out of the 18 besieged areas are controlled by government forces and its allies.

"The government has to live up to its promises, up to the new procedures, it has to allow us to help people. Needs will be rising again rapidly if we're not allowed and able to go as we are supposed to," he warned.

He also cautioned that the deterioration of the situation could affect the political process seeking to broker a political end to the crisis which has killed over 250,000 people.

"We cannot fail. We must regain the momentum and I'm hopeful that this will happen in the next week or two," Egeland concluded.

Since the start of the year, 446,425 civilians living in Syrian besieged and hard-to-reach areas have been provided with multi-sectoral assistance. Endit