United Nations says Syria conflict a humanitarian catastrophe by UNHCR, OCHA, Unicef & agencies 12:34am 6th Mar, 2013   18 Apr 2013    United Nations says Syria conflict a humanitarian catastrophe. (Reuters)    Syrian families have been burned in their homes, people bombed waiting for bread, children tortured, raped and murdered and cities reduced to rubble in Syria''s two-year-old war that has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe, the United Nations said on Thursday.    A quarter of Syria''s 22 million people are displaced within the country and 1.3 million have fled to other states in the Middle East and North Africa, U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council.    It was a rare public briefing of the Security Council on the conflict in Syria, which was called for by Australia, and Amos pleaded for the 15 council members to "take the action necessary to end this brutal conflict."    "The situation in Syria is a humanitarian catastrophe with ordinary people paying the price for the failure to end the conflict," Amos said. "I do not have an answer for those Syrians I have spoken to who asked me why the world has abandoned them."    The Security Council has been deadlocked on how to end the conflict. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad''s close ally Russia, with the aid of China, has used its veto power to block any condemnations or attempts to sanction Assad''s government.    The United Nations says the war in Syria, which began as peaceful protests that turned violent when Assad tried to crush the revolt, has claimed more than 70,000 lives.    "Children are among the ones who suffer most," Amos said. "Children have been murdered, tortured and subjected to sexual violence. Many do not have enough food to eat. Millions have been traumatized by the horrors ... This brutal conflict is not only shattering Syria''s present, it is destroying its future."    U.N. envoy on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, and U.N. envoy on children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, also briefed the council on the Syrian conflict.    STARVING CHILDREN    Guterres said that since February, there have been 8,000 Syrians a day fleeing across the country''s borders and at that rate the number of refugees was forecast to more than double by the end of the year to 3.5 million.    "This is not just frightening, it risks becoming simply unsustainable. There is no way to adequately respond to the enormous humanitarian needs these figures represent," he told the Security Council. "And it is difficult to imagine how a nation can endure so much suffering."    He warned of the conflict spilling over into Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq - Syria''s neighbors bearing the refugee burden. He said that taking into account only registered refugees, Lebanon''s population had grown by 10 percent.    "But taking into account refugees who are not seeking registration, and Syrian migrant workers, some even estimate that up to a quarter of the population of Lebanon may now be Syrian," Guterres said.    Amos said there were 6.8 million people inside Syria in need of aid.    She said that of the $1.5 billion pledged by international donors to cover Syria''s humanitarian needs until June, only about half had been paid. She also painted a dire picture of international efforts to deliver aid within Syria.    Bureaucratic obstacles make it almost impossible for aid to be distributed and the Syrian government has reduced the number of aid groups approved to work in the country to 29 from 110, Amos said, adding that aid convoys were also regularly attacked or shot at and staff intimidated or kidnapped.    "People in opposition-held areas are in the most urgent need," she said. "I was horrified to hear accounts during my recent visit to Turkey of children dying from hunger in these areas. We need to get aid into these hard-to-reach areas."    Amos warned that the limitations on the ground have left the United Nations "precariously close to suspending some critical humanitarian operations."    "Members of the international community, particularly members of this council, must urgently come together in support of the Syrian people," she said.    http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/united-nations-says-syria-conflict-a-humanitarian-catastrophe/    http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/number-of-syrians-in-need-rises-to-68-million-un-aid-chief/    March 2013    Syria refugees reach one million - UN High Commissioner for Refugees    One million Syrians have fled their homeland, the head of the United Nations refugee agency today said, warning that in the absence of a political solution, humanitarian workers need additional funds to help the refugees and support the countries hosting them. Data received from UNHCR’s offices in the Syria region shows that the number of Syrians either registered as refugees or being assisted as such has now reached the one million mark.    “With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched. This tragedy has to be stopped.”    The number of Syrian refugees fleeing their country has increased dramatically since the beginning of the year. Over 400,000 have become refugees since 1st January 2013. They arrive traumatized, without possessions and having lost members of their families. Around half of the refugees are children, the majority under the age of eleven. Most have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Increasingly, Syrians are also fleeing to North Africa and Europe.    “This number translates into one million people who are dependent on the generosity of host countries, the response of humanitarian agencies and the financial support of governments and individuals,” said Guterres.    Guterres noted that the impact of this large number of refugees arriving in neighbouring countries is severe. Lebanon’s population has increased by as much as 10 per cent. Jordan’s energy, water, health and education services are being strained to the limit. Turkey has spent over US$600 million setting up 17 refugee camps, with more under construction. Iraq, juggling its own crisis with more than one million Iraqis internally displaced, has received over one hundred thousand Syrian refugees in the past year.    “These countries should not only be recognized for their unstinting commitment to keeping their borders open for Syrian refugees, they should be massively supported as well,” said Guterres.    In December, the UN’s Regional Response Plan for Syrian Refugees estimated that 1.1 million Syrian refugees would arrive in neighbouring countries by the end of June 2013. UNHCR is in the process adjusting this plan accordingly in light of the new figures. Currently, the plan is only approximately 25 per cent funded.    Absent a political solution to the conflict, Guterres said, “at a minimum, humanitarian actors should receive the funds needed to save lives and ease suffering.”    March 2013    Two years into conflict, Syrian Arab Republic is on the verge of losing a generation to violence. (Unicef)    For the past two years, the world has seen crisis explode in the Syrian Arab Republic. Twenty-four months of chaos and conflict have cost the country thousands of lives, many of them children.    The wait for a political solution seems never-ending. It’s a wait that has torn a country apart and placed it on the verge of losing a generation to violence.    “Millions of children inside Syria and across the region are witnessing their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “And, as they lose their childhoods . . . as their right to be children is denied . . . their views of their neighbours are coloured in ways that can create future generations of self-perpetuating violence. With all that implies for the region as a whole.”    With conflict spiraling out of control, basic infrastructure and public services are being systematically destroyed. Health centres have been damaged, clean water is scarce, and the education system is near complete collapse. UNICEF estimates that one in every five schools has either been destroyed or is being used by displaced people seeking shelter. Many children have been out of school for nearly two years.    The war has affected the entire country and left many Syrians with no choice but to flee. Every day, more and more families are crossing borders to escape the accelerating violence. A million people have already fled their homes for neighbouring countries. Imagine the residents of New Orleans and Washington on the run, says UNHCR. It’s as if the entire population of Ottawa, Canada, were seeking shelter in another country, they say.    And neighbouring countries like Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are feeling the strain of the influx.    Director of UNICEF’s Emergency Programmes Ted Chaiban traveled inside the Syrian Arab Republic last month. He finds it hard to describe the gut-wrenching scenes and heart-breaking conversations he had with families. “I met children who were hearing the sounds of bombs and the sounds of shelling less than a kilometre away from their homes,” he says. “They were living in displaced shelters – 10 to 12 in a room with their families, with really very minimal possessions – maybe just the clothes on their backs and some plastic sheeting on the windows.    “These are children who witnessed violence against their families, and who have been subject to violence themselves.”    Children are the paying the heaviest price for the conflict. Of the four million people affected inside the country, almost half are children. These children face tremendous dangers every day. They are being targeted, killed, maimed, abused, tortured – and orphaned.    http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/Syria_2yr_Report.pdf    Two Million Syrian Children Caught in Crossfire of Conflict, Save the Children Warns.    Two million children trapped inside Syria are innocent victims of a bloody conflict that has already claimed 70,000 lives, said Save the Children, these children are under constant risk of malnutrition, disease, trauma and early marriage.    In a new report, "Childhood Under Fire," launched to mark two years of violence in Syria, Save the Children details the impact of the conflict on children, showing that many are struggling to find enough to eat; are living in barns, parks and caves; are unable to go to school with teachers having fled and schools being attacked; and that damage to sanitation systems is forcing some children to defecate in the street.    Citing new research carried out amongst refugee children by Bahcesehir University in Turkey, the report also reveals the extent to which children have been directly targeted in the war, with one in three children reporting having been hit, kicked or shot at.    Combined with the breakdown of society in parts of the country and more than three million people displaced, the conflict has led to the collapse of childhood for millions of youngsters.    "Childhood under Fire" details how some young boys are being used by armed groups as porters, runners and human shields, bringing them close to the frontline, while some girls are being married off early to ''''protect'''' them from a widely-perceived threat of sexual violence.    The report''''s key findings are:    Thousands of children are facing malnutrition as food production is wiped out and severe shortages take hold. "Why did we leave? Hunger. Food. There was none. No bread. If I stayed my children would have died from hunger," — Rami, father of three.    Millions of children have been forced from their homes and tens of thousands are living in parks, barns and caves. "There were 13 of us in total, crammed into one room. We did not leave that room for two weeks."- Yasmine, 12.    Girls are being married off early in an effort to protect them from perceived threat of sexual violence. "My daughter is 16 and she loved school. She is innocent and very pretty. I know that men are hurting women. We could not protect her, so we had to marry her. We needed her to have a protector." — Um Ali, mother of two.    Families have been left without heating in winter as fuel prices have risen by up to 500 percent. "In one area of Syria where Save the Children is responding, during the bitter winter, school benches were stolen for firewood; desperate, understandable measures to stay warm, but further erosion of children"s opportunities to learn and play."- Childhood Under Fire.    "For millions of Syrian children, the innocence of childhood has been replaced by the cruel realities of trying to survive this vicious war," said Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children. "Many are now living out in the open, struggling to find enough to eat, without the right medicine if they become sick or injured. As society has broken down, in the worst cases, hunger, homelessness and terror have replaced school for some of these young people. We cannot allow this to continue unchecked; the lives of too many children are at stake."    http://www.savethechildren.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=8rKLIXMGIpI4E&b=8486803&ct=13020737    Syrian crisis depriving hundreds of thousands of children of education, UNICEF warns.    The escalating violence in Syria is threatening the education of hundreds of thousands of children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, following an assessment which shows a significant number of schools have been destroyed, teachers have been killed, and attendance rates have plummeted.    “The education system in Syria is reeling from the impact of violence,” said UNICEF’s Syria Representative, Youssouf Abdel-Jelil. “Syria once prided itself on the quality of its schools. Now it’s seeing the gains it made over the years rapidly reversed.”    According to the assessment, one-fifth of the country’s schools have suffered direct physical damage or are being used to shelter internally displaced persons (IDPs).    In cities where the conflict is most intense, such as Idlib, Aleppo and Deraa, children often fail to turn up for class, sometimes attending only twice a week. In areas with high numbers of IDPs however, classes are overcrowded, sometimes hosting up to 100 students.    The assessment, conducted in December, also found that more than 110 teachers and other staff have been killed and many others are no longer reporting for work. In Idlib, teacher attendance is no more than 55 per cent.    Some schools have also been used by armed forces and groups involved in the conflict, making parents reluctant to send their children to school.    “Being in school makes children feel safe and protected and leaves parents hopeful about their children’s future,” said Mr. Abdel-Jelil. “That’s why so many parents we talk to single out education as their top priority.”    Lack of funding for humanitarian activities remains a major constraint.    The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that of the $519 million requested to respond to the crisis in Syria, only 21 per cent has been received and the $1 billion Refugee Response Plan is 19 per cent funded.    Up to 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 and more than one million people have fled to neighbouring countries. In addition, 2 million have been internally displaced and over 4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.    27 February 2013    UN stresses urgent need for funds to help Syrians affected by crisis.    Humanitarian operations to assist Syrians who have been affected by the ongoing conflict are currently operating on a “shoestring” budget and funds are urgently needed to keep up with the scale of the crisis, senior United Nations officials said today.    “This is a crisis that is completely stretching our capacity,” the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, told reporters after she briefed the Security Council behind closed doors. “The pace at which we are able to provide assistance is much slower than the pace that the crisis is evolving.”    Ms. Amos said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which she heads, is still trying to gain access to many areas inside the country, as well as engaging with groups on the ground to ensure they can provide assistance across conflict lines. She noted that there had been recent successes in gaining access in the Homs and Aleppo governorates, but underlined that to ensure the continuation of aid, more funds are required.    Last month countries and regional organizations pledged more than $1.5 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians affected by the conflict in Syria. However, Ms. Amos said that only $200 million has been received so far.    “We are engaged in consultations with the countries that pledged but we have not yet received $1.3 billion of the money that was pledged,” she said.    The Director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Udo Janz, echoed Ms. Amos’ remarks on the urgent need for funds to be able to sustain operations not just inside Syria but in neighbouring countries, which are now hosting some 900,000 people who have fled the conflict.    “The funding situation is a grim one. We have heard all the pledges, we now need to see that these pledges are honoured,” he said. “UNHCR is operating on a shoestring compared to the needs that are in the region.”    Feb 2013 (OCHA)    Ordinary people are paying a terrible price, says Valerie Amos, United Nations Humanitarian Chief calling on the international community to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria which continues to claim more lives and to displace more people. She said aid organizations desperately need more resources to respond to the crisis.    “Day after day we are all seeing and hearing appalling reports on our television screens, on the internet and in the newspapers of more violence and hardship.”    Nearly one in five people in Syria need humanitarian assistance, including scores of children who have been caught up in the brutal violence which started nearly two years ago, in March 2011. The particularly harsh winter is exacerbating the situation, affecting displaced families who live in shelters without adequate insulation, winter clothes and blankets.    “While we on the humanitarian side cannot end the political crisis or the fighting, the humanitarian community continues to try to do more to help Syrians caught up in the conflict,” said USG Amos. “We are, of course, frustrated by the many challenges we face inside Syria, but every month we and our partners are feeding more people, delivering basic relief items, and supplementing basic health and education services.”    Despite immense security challenges and limited access, UN agencies and humanitarian partners have continued to try to scale up aid. WFP is currently reaching about 1.5 million people a month with vital food assistance. UNICEF and WHO have helped vaccinate millions of children against measles and polio. UNHCR and partners continue to support hundreds of thousands of refugees in neighbouring countries.    “But it is just not enough, especially as we cannot keep pace with the rising number of people in acute need,” said Ms. Amos. “We need more people, we need more partners, and we need to be able to deliver more quickly.”    http://www.unhcr.org/512e4f626.html    http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/syriancrisis_67185.html    http://www.unocha.org/crisis/syria    http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/press-briefing/2013/02-15-syria-humanitarian-situation.htm    Jan 2013    UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by the continued dramatic escalation of violence in Syria, and the grave danger facing civilians in areas under fire.    “The Secretary-General firmly condemns this escalation of armed violence, in particular the shelling of population centres and attacks against civilians”.    “The Secretary-General reminds all parties in Syria that they must abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians”. “Targeting civilians or carrying out military operations in populated areas, in an indiscriminate or disproportionate fashion that harms civilians is a war crime.”    UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, and European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva appealed to all parties in the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, to provide unhindered access to humanitarian aid and to ensure the safe passage of civilians fleeing the fighting.    “Millions of Syrians are affected by this conflict and hundreds of thousands are uprooted and on the move in search of safety,” Mr. Guterres said during a joint visit to Lebanon to view refugee projects.    “Getting help to them is difficult and dangerous. And those seeking protection in neighbouring countries are often in extreme danger right up to the borders. The safety of the civilian population is of paramount importance,” he stressed. Visit the related web page
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