Aid delivery faltering in Syria, UN chief says

GENEVA

The head of the UN’s humanitarian efforts in Syria on Thursday called on the government to “live up to its promises” on allowing aid into isolated and besieged areas.

Jan Egeland, the humanitarian aid adviser to the UN’s Syria envoy, said he was “disappointed” by recent efforts to deliver aid.

“We have been working for two months and April is supposed to be our best month,” he told reporters in Geneva following a UN taskforce meeting on humanitarian access. He added: “The government has to live up its promises.”

The humanitarian effort is part of an international response to the Syrian conflict that includes a cease-fire that has largely held over the last month.

“If humanitarian situation again rapidly deteriorates in many areas at the same time, it will also affect the political process and the cessation of hostilities,”Egeland warned.

He said aid had been delivered to 446,000 people in hard-to-reach areas since the beginning of the year but that the delivery process was “not getting better and better, it is actually slowing down.”

Up to 500 sick and wounded people and their families would be evacuated from the towns of Madaya, Zabadani, Foua and Kufreya over the next few days, Egeland said.

GENEVA

The head of the UN’s humanitarian efforts in Syria on Thursday called on the government to “live up to its promises” on allowing aid into isolated and besieged areas.

Jan Egeland, the humanitarian aid adviser to the UN’s Syria envoy, said he was “disappointed” by recent efforts to deliver aid.

The humanitarian effort is part of an international response to the Syrian conflict that includes a cease-fire that has largely held over the last month.

“If humanitarian situation again rapidly deteriorates in many areas at the same time, it will also affect the political process and the cessation of hostilities,”Egeland warned.

Up to 500 sick and wounded people and their families would be evacuated from the towns of Madaya, Zabadani, Foua and Kufreya over the next few days, Egeland said.