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Next few days critical for Syrians stuck in humanitarian stalemate: UN

Xinhua, May 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

While aid provision to Syrians living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas has yet to make significant headway, mounting pressure on warring factions could still budge the deadlocked situation, Senior Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Jan Egeland, said Thursday.

"The next days will be crucial. We take heart in the Russian-U.S. statement which says that we will be granted access to all of the besieged areas and all of the medical supplies that are unloaded will be granted," he said following the humanitarian task force meeting at Geneva's UN headquarters.

Over half of the 905,000 people the UN hoped to reach in May have not received cross-sectoral assistance due to the lack of permits enabling convoys to conduct relief operations.

The breakdown of a ceasefire, a "catastrophe" according to Egeland, has also compounded the situation as warring groups prolong a conflict which has claimed the lives of 400,000 people so far.

"The next few days could change this, and we do sense an intense diplomatic pressure on the parties on the ground from the members of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG)," he said.

The ISSG is scheduled to meet in Vienna next week to discuss the enhancement of a nationwide cessation of hostilities in the war-torn country.

A truce set in motion over two months ago catalyzed unprecedented humanitarian access while giving life to a political peace process which has since been put on hold.

A total of 781,425 civilians (up from 778,000 a week ago) living in besieged and hard-to-reach areas have been delivered assistance through interagency operations this year.

A total of 62.5 percent of all those besieged by belligerents in Syria have received aid, compared to only 5 percent last year.

The UN is now looking to reach the southern city of Darayya with plans to provide medical supplies and baby milk.

Similar operations could take place in areas which have until now been refused access in the coming days. Enditem