U.N. Reports Improved Aid Access in Syria, But Outlook Bleak

08/28/2014

Humanitarian access in Syria has improved since the U.N. Security Council last month authorized the delivery of emergency aid across the Syrian border without the government's consent, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report.

But he warned that designated terrorist groups continue to prevent aid workers from accessing some of the estimated 10.8 million people in Syria in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

“All parties to the conflict continue to deny access to humanitarian assistance in an unjustifiable manner,” Ban said. “Hundreds of thousands of people live under siege.”

The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2165 last month, which authorized aid access at four border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, even though Syria had warned it deemed such deliveries incursions into its territory.

Ban said it was the first time he was able to report improvements since he began submitting monthly updates on aid access earlier this year.

“Access across borders following the adoption of resolution 2165 has resulted in broader reach to areas in Aleppo, Dar’a (Deraa), Rural Damascus, Idleb (Idlib) and Lattakia (Latakia),” he said in the report, obtained by Reuters on Monday.

He said aid access had improved in Aleppo and rural Damascus, adding that “many of these locations had not received assistance since the onset of the conflict.”

The Security Council will discuss Ban's report on Thursday.

Ban said medical supplies, including surgical items, reached several rebel-held areas this month.

The full article continues at http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSKBN0GP1FW20140825 on Reuters’ website.