Security Council: Poverty deepens, along with need, across Syria

© UNICEF/Omar Albam

On 23 April 2020, a child washes dishes in the Maarat Misrin camp north of Idlib, Syrian Arab Republic.

    

29 July 2020

Humanitarian operations across war-shattered Syria are reaching 6.8 million people a month, but a worsening economic crisis is deepening poverty and pushing more and more Syrians into humanitarian need, the Security Council heard Wednesday.

UN humanitarian affairs chief Mark Lowcock said that the United Nations and its partners are working to address operational challenges arising from the Council’s decision following weeks of division, on 11 July, to reduce to just one, the number of border crossing through which food, medicine and other forms of aid can pass from Turkey into Syria.

The UN is also helping to tackle COVID-19 in Syria, where the number of confirmed cases remains in the hundreds, but the true number is certainly higher, Mr. Lowcock told the Council’s monthly meeting on the humanitarian aspects of the conflict in Syria that erupted in 2011.

Time of ‘extreme fragilty’

“The Syrian economy, devastated by nearly a decade of conflict, has entered a period of extreme fragility,” he added, marked by exchange-rate volatility, high inflation, dwindling remittances from Syrians working abroad, and lockdown measures to contain the novel coronavirus.

This year, the economy is expected to contract by more than 7 per cent, he said. Unemployment is close to 50 per cent, compared with 42 per cent last year and food prices are 240 per cent higher than in June 2019.

“What this means is that families across the country can no longer afford the very basics”, he said, noting that 9.3 million people in Syria are living with food insecurity – with over two million more, at risk of joining them.

Respect and protect

On the need to respect and protect civilians, Mr. Lowcock said that the ceasefire in northwest Syria - reached in March between the Russian Federation and Turkey - is largely holding, despite periodic shelling, airstrikes and bomb attacks that have killed or injured dozens of people, including children.

Elsewhere in Syria, the lack of regular humanitarian assistance is creating a critical situation for 12,000 civilians thought to be still in Rukban, near the Jordanian border.  Mr. Lowcock added that his team is also monitoring with concern an uptick in violence in the southern city of Dara’a.

Water, school woes

Water is another worry, with the Euphrates river at low levels and disruptions involving the Alouk water station affecting 460,000 people in Al-Hasakeh governorate, in northeast Syria, he said.

Meanwhile, a third of Syria’s school-aged children – some 2.5 million youngsters – are out of school, with another 1.6 million at risk of dropping out. Yet thousands of students are crossing frontlines to take national exams, hoping their future will take a turn for the better.

Mr. Lowcock reported that the fourth Brussels Pledging Conference on 30 June generated $7.7 billion in pledges for humanitarian, resilience and development activities in Syria and the region.  The biggest pledges came from the European Commission, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, France and Denmark.

$384 million still needed

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This year’s $3.4 billion Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria is 32 per cent funded so far, “making it one of our better funded operations,” Mr. Lowcock said, adding however that another $384 million is required for Syria under the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan – of which 28 per cent has been received.

COVID, a crisis within a crisis

Also briefing the Council today was Amany Qaddour of Syria Relief and Development, a non-governmental aid agency, who described the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis within a crisis that has exposed how fragmented the health sector in Syria is.

“We know that negative health outcomes don’t emerge in a vacuum,” Ms. Qaddour told the Council, which has been meeting via video-teleconference since mid-March when UN headquarters in New York closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the initial focus has been on trauma and emergency services, healthcare must be seen as a continuum that includes provisions for primary and community health, rehabilitative care for persons with disabilities, and mental health, she said.

Source:UN News

UNICEF sounds alarm over water cuts in Syria as efforts ramp up to prevent COVID-19 spread

© UNICEF/Masoud Hasan

Two young children wait to collect water trucked in by UNICEF from other areas of the Middle East to Tal Tamer, Syria. (16 October 2019)

    

23 March 2020

Humanitarian Aid

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its relief partners in Syria are warning that water disruptions in the country’s war-battered north-east could exacerbate risks posed by the global coronavirus pandemic. 

In statement from Damascus, Fran Equiza, UNICEF Representative in Syria, said on Monday that the water supply from the Allouk station – the main source of water for some 460,000 people – has been interrupted

It is the latest in a series of pumping disruptions over the past weeks, he said.

“The interruption of water supply during the current efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus disease puts children and families at unacceptable risk. Handwashing with soap is critical in the fight against COVID-19,” he said.

UNICEF mobilizes against pandemic

Around the globe, UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene programmes are stepping up their fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The multisectoral response is being led by the World Health Organization (WHO) at the global level.

Fran Equiza@franequiza

Water from the Allouk water station has been interrupted again putting 460k people at risk in northeast #Syria. Interruption of water supply during the current efforts to curb the spread of the Coronavirus disease puts children at unacceptable risk.https://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/interruption-key-water-station-northeast-syria-puts-460000-people-risk-coronavirus …

Interruption to key water station in the northeast of Syria puts 460,000 people at risk as efforts...

unicef.org

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8:54 PM - Mar 23, 2020

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In north-east Syria, where many of the families reliant on the Allouk water station live in camps for displaced persons, UNICEF says access to uninterrupted, reliable access to safe water is essential to ensure that residents are not forced to resort to unsafe water sources.  

“UNICEF and partners are supporting families in the city of al-Hassakeh and camps for displaced families with water trucking, but this barely covers minimum needs if the water supply is interrupted again,” he said.  

Life without water amid COVID-19 outbreak 

The supply interruption to the Allouk station is one in a series of service disruptions related to ongoing fighting in northeast Syria. 

In an October 2019 statement, UNICEF reported that water from Allouk had been cut off for more than a week amid continued violence in the town of Ras Al-Ain, where the water station is located.   

According to the agency, the two main electricity lines supplying power to the Allouk station were damaged by fighting. While technical teams were able to reach the water station, they were not fully able to repair the damage.  

Today, Mr. Equiza emphasized the importance of safe water and handwashing – not just in the time of COVID-19, but every day. 

“No child should have to live even one day without safe water. Clean water and handwashing save lives.  Water and water facilities must not be used for military or political gains – when they do, children are the first and most to suffer,” he said. 

Virus threatens lives in conflict zones 

As humanitarian workers worldwide brace to shield the most vulnerable from the spread of COVID-19, the international community is demanding more action to protect women, children and others in the world’s conflict hotspots. 

Calling for a worldwide ceasefire in a virtual press conference earlier today, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that armed conflict continues to rage on despite the expanding risks posed by the pandemic.  

“The most vulnerable — women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized and the displaced — pay the highest price. They are also at the highest risk of suffering devastating losses from COVID-19,” he said, adding that health systems in many conflict-affected countries have collapsed and people displaced by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable. 

“The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” the UN chief said. 

 

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