Dire medical situation in Syria must be remedied: UN official

The senior advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria on Thursday welcomed the fact that all of Syria's besieged areas had received humanitarian aid this year, but added more needed to done to address the pressing medical needs in the country.

"It is, in many ways, against all odds that we have been able to reach all of the 18 areas at least once," Jan Egeland explained after the weekly humanitarian task force meeting in Geneva's UN headquarters.

"The reason for the biggest suffering and greatest loss of life has probably been that there is neither a supply of medical personnel and items, nor a system for medical evacuations," he added.

He also warned that starvation could be returning to Madaya, Az-Zabdani, Kafraya and Foah since ongoing violence had prevented assistance and assessment missions form accessing the areas.

With the besieged towns of Arbin and Zamalka receiving aid for the first time since 2012, this means that all of Syria's besieged locations have been reached since relief operations kicked off in February this year.

According to the latest UN figures, over 940,000 civilians living in hard-to-reach and besieged locations received multi-sectoral assistance at least once in 2016.

Though a landmark achievement, the medical situation in the war-torn country is still considered an urgent issue of humanitarian concern.

"The logic seems to be that the doctor of my enemy is my enemy and anything that can get a wounded soldier back to the battle field has to be prevented," Egeland explained.

"The consequences of this policy is that civilians -- mothers, children and the wounded -- bleed to death. One of the things we need to focus on now in the humanitarian task force is to do something about this attitude," the official concluded.

Syria has been engaged in a civil war since 2011. Endit