Not enough aid reaching desperate Syrian population: UN

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Thursday the delivery of aid to those living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria was still not making enough progress.

Following this week's humanitarian task force meeting, de Mistura reported that many participants were both "disappointed" and "frustrated" by the lack of new convoys reaching some areas in Syria.

"We have not been able to reach so far Duma, Daraya, East Harasta, and we need to do more for Moadamiya, Zabadani, Kafraya and Foah," he explained.

So far this year, 450,725 civilians have received assistance through 47 inter-agency convoys, up from 446,425 last week.

This week's figure means that 32 percent of the population living in besieged areas have received life-saving assistance and that 6 percent of those in hard-to-reach areas have been reached.

While acknowledging that incremental improvement was needed, de Mistura lauded the third successful food airdrop on Thursday to Deir ez-Zor, a town besieged by Islamic State (IS) since March 2014.

"The next airdrops are also likely to include not only food items, but medical items which are very much needed in the area," said the special envoy, who added that 55 tonnes of provisions had been airdropped by the World Food Program to date.

The diplomat indicated that a large-scale vaccination program was set to start on April 24 and that the government had assured that most medical items, barring surgical equipment, would be allowed to reach those in need.

The issue of detainees was also raised by de Mistura who, on Wednesday, resumed the latest round of talks aiming to broker a political end to the Syrian crisis which has killed over a quarter of a million people and displaced millions of others. Endit