The United Nations on Tuesday, May 30, issued an urgent appeal for humanitarian aid for Syria, warning that people in every district of the country are experiencing some degree of “humanitarian stress.” Around 70% of the population—over 15 million people—depends on humanitarian aid for their survival, according to the UN.
In order to provide humanitarian aid, the UN has appealed to international donors for a sum of US$ 5.4 billion, less than 10% of which has been received. According to the World Food Program (WFP), without more donations, around 2.5 million Syrians risk losing their food or cash assistance by July.
The UN also noted that the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February has further aggravated the crisis. UN humanitarian office’s operations director Edem Wosornu, speaking at the Security Council, said that the Syrian people “are more and more reliant on humanitarian assistance as basic services and critical infrastructure are on the brink of collapse” and that “Syrians need the support of the international community now more than at any time in the past 12 years.”
She urged donors to make pledges and ensure the release of funds at the conference being hosted by the European Union in Brussels in June. She added that uninterrupted supply of humanitarian aid is particularly vital in northwestern parts of Syria, which has suffered the worst impact of the earthquake.
Syria’s economy has been severely hurt due to a decade-long war and sanctions imposed by the US and its allies. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the US had initially refused to provide any sanctions relief before providing a temporary exemption for aid. Speaking at a UN Security Council session in the aftermath of the earthquake, Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bassam Sabbagh said that “Syria alone did not have the capacity to face this unprecedented catastrophe due to the repercussions of the terrorist war waged against it for 12 years and the suffocating blockade imposed on its people as a result of Western unilateral coercive measures.”
A number of leftist parties and human rights organizations in the region had also demanded the dropping of the “imperialist Caesar Act,” which imposes harsh sanctions on Syria.
