Human toll of Syria"s civil war echoes Rwandan genocide, says UN by UN Agencies, AP, Save the Children 4:36am 21st Jul, 2013   Oct 2013    UN urges all sides in Syrian crisis to immediately provide access for humanitarian aid.    Gravely concerned by the deepening “humanitarian tragedy” in Syria, the United Nations urged the Syrian Government to immediately allow cross-border aid deliveries and called on all parties to the conflict to agree on humanitarian pauses in the fighting, including along “key routes” for relief convoys.    “The magnitude of the humanitarian tragedy caused by the conflict in Syria requires immediate action to facilitate safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance” across the entire country, the 15-member body said in a presidential statement which also deplored the escalating violence that has already killed more than 100,000 people and driven some 6.5 million others from their homes.    The UN condemned widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Syrian authorities, as well by armed groups and called on all parties to immediately end such violations in a country that has been torn apart by increasingly brutal violence since opposition protesters first sought the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in March, 2011.    The UN noted with “grave concern” the fact that several million Syrians need “immediate humanitarian assistance, and without urgent increased humanitarian action, their lives will be at risk.” Gravely alarmed, it called on Damascus to take immediate steps to facilitate the expansion of humanitarian relief operations, and lift bureaucratic impediments and other obstacles, and voiced “deep concern” at the consequences of the refugee crisis caused by the conflict, “which has a destabilizing impact on the entire region.”    The UN urged all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, to take all appropriate steps to facilitate the efforts of the UN, its specialized agencies and all humanitarian actors engaged in relief activities, to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the affected people in Syria, including by “promptly facilitating safe and unhindered humanitarian access to populations in need of assistance in all areas under their control and across conflict lines.”    “The UN recalls that all obligations under international humanitarian law must be respected in all circumstances,” it added in the statement, which called on all sides to immediately end all violence and attend a peace conference to facilitate a Syrian-led political process leading to a transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.    The UN said it was “appalled” by the level of violence, including sexual and gender-based abuse, condemned increased terrorist attacks, and called for immediate action to facilitate safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance in the whole country, stressing that the Syrian authorities bear the primary responsibility to protect their populations.    It expressed appreciation for the significant efforts made by the neighbouring and regional countries, notably Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, to accommodate the more than two million refugees who have fled Syria.    “The UN also urges all Member States to respond swiftly to the United Nations’ humanitarian appeals to meet the spiralling needs of people inside Syria, in particular internally displaced persons, and Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, and to ensure that all pledges are honoured in full”.    “It urges all Member States, in coordination with international financial institutions and United Nations agencies, to increase their support to address the increasing political, socio-economic and financial impact of the refugee crisis on hosting countries.”    Speaking to the press in New York following the Council’s action, Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator welcomed the statement saying: “We need the whole international community to come together to work to bring an end to this crisis.”    “This statement clearly calls on all parties to do their utmost to end the violence and stop targeting civilians. It also reminds them that they must facilitate the swift provision of vital humanitarian aid and that there are serious consequences for violating international humanitarian and human rights law,” she said, adding: “Our task now is to turn these strong words into meaningful action for the children, women and men who are the victims of the continued brutality and violence.”    “My colleagues in the humanitarian and human rights fields have called many times over the past two and a half years for unhindered access to help us get aid to people in desperate need, many of whom are in areas we have not been able to reach for months,” Ms. Amos said, adding that humanitarian actors have also called on the warring parties to protect civilians from the brutal fighting and violence - to stop targeting vital civilian services like schools, shops and hospitals, and to stop violating human rights.    “We have also continued to ask for increased support to the millions of families who have fled to neighbouring countries and for the communities supporting them,” Ms. Amos said, also emphasizing that people must be able to seek safety from the violence and know that their homes, hospitals and schools are safe.    23 August 2013    Syrian conflict hits tragic milestone: one million children now refugees, UN agencies say.    Three years of bloodshed in Syria have driven one million children from their homeland, United Nations agencies said today as they marked this “shameful milestone” by urging the entire international community to do more to help end the conflict and protect the well-being of “a generation of innocents.”    “This one millionth child refugee is not just another number,” said the Executive Director of the UN Children''''s Fund (UNICEF) Anthony Lake. “This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend.”    Mr. Lake said that while humanitarian organizations are working to alleviate the suffering of those affected by the crisis, the shameful milestone reflects the failure of the international community to respond to the needs of Syrian children.    “We should stop and ask ourselves how, in all conscience, we can continue to fail the children of Syria,” he said.    According to UNICEF and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), children make up half of all refugees. Most have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Increasingly, they are fleeing to North Africa and Europe.    The majority of child refugees, some 740,000, are under the age of 11, and thousands more children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria''''s borders either unaccompanied or separated from their families, making them vulnerable to multiple threats including child labour, early marriage and the potential for sexual exploitation and trafficking.    Inside Syria, over 7,000 children have been killed during the conflict, and UNHCR and UNICEF estimate that over 2 million have been internally displaced.    “What is at stake is nothing less than the survival and wellbeing of a generation of innocents,” said High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures. Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatized, depressed and in need of a reason for hope.”    UNHCR and UNICEF are providing support to millions of affected families and children. More than 1.3 million children in refugee communities have been vaccinated against measles this year with the support of UNICEF and its partners. Nearly 167,000 refugee children have received psychosocial assistance, more than 118,000 children have been able to maintain their education inside and out of formal schools, and more than 222,000 people have been provided with water supplies.    UNHCR has registered all 1 million children, giving them an identity. The agency also helps babies born in exile get birth certificates, preventing them from becoming stateless.    Mr. Lake and Mr. Guterres stressed that funds for humanitarian assistance are running low, with the Syria Regional Refugee Response plan being only 38 per cent funded. They also underlined the need to find a political solution to the crisis, and appealed to all parties to the conflict to stop targeting civilians and cease recruitment of children.    Those who fail to meet these obligations under international humanitarian law should be held fully accountable for their actions, they added.    July 2013    An estimated 5,000 Syrians are dying every month in the country"s civil war and refugees are fleeing at a rate not seen since the 1994 Rwanda genocide, U.N. officials said Tuesday.    "In Syria today, serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity are the rule," said Ivan Simonovic, the assistant secretary-general for human rights, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.    He added that "the extremely high rate of killings ... demonstrates the drastic deterioration of this conflict."    U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres said two-thirds of the nearly 1.8 million Syrian refugees known to the agency have fled since the beginning of 2013, an average of over 6,000 daily.    "We have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago," he said.    U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said at least 6.8 million Syrians require urgent humanitarian assistance and accused the government and opposition of "systematically and in many cases deliberately" failing their obligation to protect civilians.    "This is a regional crisis, not a crisis in Syria with regional consequences, requiring sustained and comprehensive engagement from the international community," Amos said by videoconference from Geneva.    "The security, economic, political, social, development, and humanitarian consequences of this crisis are extremely grave and its human impact immeasurable in terms of the long-term trauma and emotional impact on this and future generations of Syrians," she said. "We are not only watching the destruction of a country but also of its people."    Simonovic said that since U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay reported last month that at least 92,901 people had been killed between March 2011 when the conflict began and the end of April 2013, government forces and militias have moved to uproot the opposition in many areas including Qusair and Talkalkh, Aleppo, Damascus and its suburbs.    "Government forces carry on with indiscriminate and disproportionate shelling and aerial bombardments, using among other weapons tactical ballistic missiles, cluster and thermobaric bombs, all causing extensive damage and casualties if used in densely populated areas," he said.    "As a result, hundreds of civilians, including women and children were killed, thousands injured, and tens of thousands displaced," Simonovic said. "Many displaced in the parts of Homs and rural Damascus remain under siege and face miserable humanitarian conditions."    He said armed opposition groups have also committed acts of torture, abduction and kidnapping, sometimes along sectarian lines.    "Killings, violence and threats of reprisals against civilian populations perceived to be supportive of the government by armed opposition groups are escalating alarmingly," he said.    Guterres, the refugee chief, said "the danger that the Syrian conflict could ignite the whole region is not an empty warning."    Calling the impact of the refugee crisis on neighboring countries "crushing," he urged international action to support the stability of Syria"s neighbors and reduce "the enormous risks of spillover" to the wider Middle East.    Guterres appealed to all countries to keep their borders open and receive all Syrians who seek protection.    Lebanon and Jordan are bearing the heaviest burden of the refugee exodus, he said, but the Kurdish region of Iraq and Turkey which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of its own resources to assist over 400,000 refugees have also been affected.    "What I am asking for today is essential to mitigate the risk of an explosion that could engulf the entire Middle East, but only a political solution to Syria and an end to the fighting can fully stop this risk," Guterres said.    July, 2013    Number of Syrian children fleeing conflict nears one million, says Save the Children.    The number of children who have fled Syria seeking safety from the deadly conflict is now dangerously close to one million, Save the Children says.    The children’s aid agency estimates that more than 900,000 children have now fled the country’s brutal conflict, and says that more than half of Syrian refugees arriving in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq are children, many of whom are separated from one or both of their parents.    The new figures come as aid worker Stephen McDonald, Head of Humanitarian    Emergencies with Save the Children, is in Jordan meeting with refugee children and their families now living in refugee camps and host communities.    “It is a tragedy that the number of children fleeing this deadly conflict is now almost one million. It is a staggering figure that shows with horrifying clarity just how devastating the conflict has become for children and their families,” said Mr McDonald from Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp.    “Here in Jordan and across the region, we see thousands of children and their families arrive every day across the border. Many have nowhere to go, most are terrified and many are traumatised by what they have seen and experienced. They arrive hungry and often without even a change of clothes.”    Mr McDonald said more aid funding was needed to help people forced to flee Syria.    “Save the Children and other agencies are doing all we can to help people forced to flee the fighting. However there is no end in sight to the crisis and more funds are needed if we are to have any hope of meeting the needs of children living in camps along Syria’s borders.”    Save the Children is working on the ground across Syria and in Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to provide support to families affected by the conflict. The aid agency is delivering food and relief items, getting children back into school, and helping them come to terms with their horrific experiences.    21 May 2013    A senior United Nations humanitarian official reported today that the total number of people in need of assistance as a result of the ongoing conflict in Syria is now 8.3 million, representing about 38 per cent of the country’s population.    This figure includes some 6.8 million in need inside the country and 1.5 million who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, Panos Moumtzis, Regional Coordinator for Syrian Refugees for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).    “The situation in the neighbouring countries and movement of refugees across the border is obviously a direct consequence of the increased level of insecurity inside Syria, and in particular in areas of conflict,” he told a news conference in Geneva.    The needs have been growing rapidly in Syria, where over 70,000 civilians have lost their lives since the uprising seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad began in March 2011. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has labelled the situation in Syria a “humanitarian catastrophe” and warned that funding for the response has not kept pace with the growing needs.    In January, more than $1.5 billion was pledged by donors for the humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis. Early next month, the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are due to announce a revised funding appeal in light of the growing needs.    Mr. Moumtzis said that the humanitarian situation in Syria has been “rapidly spiralling downwards” since the start of the year, and concerns are increasing with the onset of warmer weather in the region.    “UNHCR is now very much worried about the coming summer months and in particular the increase in temperatures and the associated health problems linked to water and sanitation,” he stated, adding that agencies are doing their best to ensure that there are no outbreaks of diseases.    Regarding the situation in the neighbouring countries, Mr. Moumtzis reported that there are now 500,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon and 500,000 in Jordan.    “Such a significant number of refugees in a tiny country like Lebanon – with growing unemployment and insecurity, tremendous political pressure inside the country and the complexity of regional politics – made the Lebanese situation extremely dangerous,” he noted.    http://reliefweb.int/country/syr http://www.unocha.org/crisis/syria    http://www.wfp.org/countries/syria http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4f86c2426.html    http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/syriancrisis_68134.html    http://theelders.org/article/no-fuel-no-electricity-no-food-crisis-syria    http://unocha.org/top-stories/all-stories/syria-8-things-you-need-know-about-syrian-humanitarian-crisis    http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2013-08-01/syrian-refugee-crisis-stretching-aid-effort-limits-aid-agencies
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item