UN agencies continue aid delivery in Syria

 Despite difficult security conditions and restricted access, UN agencies continue aid delivery in Syria

 A spokesperson of the WHO declared that United Nations agencies are working to deliver humanitarian assistance, in spite of difficult security conditions and restricted access to various areas.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, violence in the eastern areas, rural Damascus and Dera’a is limiting access for humanitarian aid, and many areas where assistance is urgently needed remain inaccessible.

UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky commented on that saying: “The Office also says that overall insecurity and a proliferation of checkpoints are slowing down movement of humanitarian goods, and bureaucratic processes continue to delay aid delivery and impede the efficiency of the emergency response” and he added: “Nonetheless, humanitarian organizations continue to increase their assistance and the World Food Programme is planning to increase its distributions to reach 3 million people, up from the current 2.5 million, by late 2013”

In addition, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has reached more than 58,000 people with food assistance and 59,000 people with cash assistance in the past two weeks.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also continued its work inside Syria, supporting the ministry of health in Damascus with essential and communicable disease medicines to treat more than 90,000 people.

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition, as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced. In addition, at least 6.8 million Syrian require urgent humanitarian assistance, half of whom are children.

Editing by Yusra Ahmed