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Roundup: Aid reaches over 560,000 Syrians amid relative progress: UN

Xinhua, April 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura reported Thursday that though much more work needs to be done, some progress has been made on the humanitarian front in Syria since the UN-led taskforce in charge of the matter last convened a week ago.

"There's been a modest but real progress regarding the humanitarian situation in Syria. Modest but real," he told press.

"So far 560,000 people have been reached in hard to reach areas and besieged areas, which means that around 220,000 people in the besieged areas have been reached," he added.

This represents close to half the total number of people living in areas besieged by warring factions.

Working with a list of 18 besieged areas, de Mistura announced that 12 of these had been provided with aid, some more than once.

The special envoy also reported that 515 people had been medically evacuated Wednesday from Zabadani, Madaya, Kafraya and Foah.

Darayya also received its first convoy carried out by a UN mission since 2012. On the ground reports reveal that there are children and civilians in urgent need of food and medical supplies.

The mediator furthermore confirmed that eight successful high-altitude airdrops reaching some 65,000 people have been conducted in Deir ez-Zor, a town in eastern Syria surrounded by the Islamic State.

Plans to vaccinate some 2.2 million children in two Syrian areas are scheduled to start on April 24.

Despite relative progress, de Mistura warned that efforts need to be enhanced by all sides in order to cater to the urgent needs of the Syrian population.

Certain medical supplies such as vitamins, antibiotics, painkillers surgical items and basic medical kits are still being removed from aid convoys.

"This is not only worrisome but unacceptable according to international law. This issue has become a priority from the humanitarian taskforce in particular to the government of Syria," said de Mistura.

The taskforce also addressed problems caused by the armed opposition, in particular regarding the ability to reach and restart humanitarian work in Azaz and eastern Aleppo.

With no progress made on the release of detainees' front, the diplomat announced that he will soon nominate a fulltime technical official to deal with the issue of detainees and abducted people.

"If humanitarian aid increases and the cessation of hostilities goes back to what we consider a hopeful mood, that will certainly help the political discussions," he concluded. Endit