SYRIA: Displaced need more help says United Nation's Emergency Coordinator Valerie Amos

Record ID: 281326

  • Title: SYRIA: Displaced need more help says United Nation's Emergency Coordinator Valerie Amos
  • Date: 14th August 2012
  • Summary: ZAHIRA (NEAR DAMASCUS), SYRIA (AUGUST 14, 2012) (REUTERS) U.N. CONVOY LEAVING FOUR SEASONS HOTEL RED CRESCENT VEHICLE BY DOOR OF A SHELTER SCHOOL IN ZAHIRA, NEAR DAMASCUS SCHOOL SIGN READING, IN ARABIC "MOHAMAD ABDIN SCHOOL FOR BOYS" VARIOUS OF U.N. EMERGENCY COORDINATOR, VALERIE AMOS, TALKING TO PRESIDENT OF THE SYRIAN RED CRESCENT, ABDUL RAHMAN AL ATTAR, AND RED CRESCENT
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAC0ZP2S7Y9TURXMSE0OQPRO1FI
  • Story Text: The United Nations will step up efforts to help Syrians displaced by the ongoing conflict in the country, U.N. Emergency Coordinator Valerie Amos said on Tuesday (August 14).
    Speaking at a visit to a school set up as an emergency shelter for displaced Syrians, Amos said events in the country since her last visit in March had left a visible impact
    "Clearly the situation has got worse since I was here in March," she said.
    "We will, through our partners the Syrian Arab Red Crescent who, as you know, have been doing and extremely good job trying to make sure the people who need help get help, we will continue to support them but also work to scale up our own efforts," Amos added.
    Amos visited the Mohamad Abdin School for Boys on the first day of a three-day visit to Syria, where she will also meet government officials as well as families affected by the country's civil conflict.
    She met with the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Dr. Abdul Rahman Attar, who accompanied her on her tour and meetings with those affected by the conflict.
    Hundreds of people are fleeing Syria daily.
    Some are wounded as they arrive in neighbouring countries while others report having been shelled or fired on in border areas, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
    Amos said there should be little doubt about the immediate desire for the violence in Syria to end.
    "I think we all hope that the fighting stops and that there is peace, stability and security. That is what people want," she said.
    Amos visited four schools taken as shelters for families who were displaced because of the latest events in the country, including Sudanese and Somalis, before later sharing the Iftar meal with the Syrian Red Crescent volunteers.
    Amos also held talks on Tuesday on ways to increase humanitarian aid to civilians trapped or displaced by intensifying fighting between government and rebel forces.
    According to a statement earlier released by the U.N., Amos, who entered the country in a convoy from Lebanon, aims to "draw attention to the deteriorating humanitarian situation and the impact of the conflict on civilians caught up in the fighting".
    She met Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, and Dr. Ali Hayder, state minister for national reconciliation, in Damascus, it said.
    Amos also held talks with General Babacar Gaye, head of the U.N. monitoring mission UNSMIS.
    The humanitarian plight has worsened over the past month as fighting has spread to the capital Damascus and the biggest city Aleppo.
    About two million people have been affected by the 17-month-old crisis and over a million are uprooted within Syria.
    Amos will address ways of increasing emergency aid to civilians, but fighting must ebb before there is any real hope of gaining access to hot spots, diplomats say.
    U.N. efforts to launch a significant aid operation in recent months have been stymied by Syrian bureaucracy and insecurity.
    U.N. distribution networks are functioning, but a U.N. humanitarian appeal of $180 million for Syria this year is apparently only 40 percent funded so far.
    Despite difficulties, Syrian Red Crescent volunteers are delivering aid to thousands of displaced in Aleppo and outlying rural areas, many of them staying in public buildings including schools, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
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