Ms. Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, OCHA, on behalf of USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr. Tom Fletcher - Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria, 21 November 2024

New York, 21 November 2024

As delivered

Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, Members of the Security Council,

Today, I will address three key issues:

First, the ongoing humanitarian impact on Syria of escalating regional conflict, including the continued influx of people from Lebanon.

Second, the compounding effect on existing humanitarian needs and pressures, at a time when over two-thirds of people in Syria are already in need of vital humanitarian assistance.

And third, the heightened need for humanitarian funding and working in ways that maximize resources.

Since I last briefed the Security Council in October, hostilities in Lebanon have continued to drive thousands of people across the border into Syria every day.

We welcome the ongoing willingness of the Government of Syria to keep its borders open and facilitate their entry.

At the same time, continued airstrikes along the border have made these crossings more dangerous and challenging, as you have just heard from the Deputy Special Envoy.

Damage from airstrikes means that vehicles can no longer traverse two of the five official border crossings. This includes the main Jdeidet Yabous crossing in Rural Damascus – through which half of the arrivals to date have come – and the Joussieh crossing in Homs.

People – including women, children and other vulnerable groups – have resorted to navigating the crossings on foot or seeking out longer and riskier alternative routes.

Airstrikes near the Joussieh border crossing and in Al-Quseir have landed close to UNHCR facilities, and in one case damaged the UNHCR Border Post at Joussieh.

Another strike in the Shamsin area damaged the Damascus-Homs road.

Civilian casualties also continue to be reported from ongoing strikes in various parts of the country, including in residential areas. These strikes are also complicating aid efforts: The movement of aid workers has been scaled back, particularly to parts of Homs.

The damage to border crossings has forced trucks to take longer routes, contributing to increased costs for commodities.

Ongoing hostilities have also affected people’s movement and response efforts in other locations. An NGO worker, for example, was injured in hostilities in Aleppo Governorate.

It is critical to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm, including to aid workers.

Mr. President,

In total, more than 540,000 people have now reportedly fled to Syria from Lebanon since late-September – more than half a million people.

An estimated two-thirds are Syrians. More than half are children. Over 7,000 are pregnant women. And about 40 per cent of arriving households are headed by women.

The key needs of those arriving to date include food, household items, shelter, health assistance, protection and legal support.

United Nations agencies are working alongside the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other partners to provide for their basic needs – at the border and at places of onward movement. Our colleagues from UNHCR, as the Deputy Special Envoy has said as well, are monitoring and assessing their needs and concerns.

However, since the launch of the US$324 million UNHCR-led interagency appeal in early October, we have received only $55 million, or that is what is projected in the pipeline.

We are doing what we can, including with existing resources on hand. But this is not sustainable in a country where 16.7 million people – more than 70 per cent of the population – are already in need of assistance.

While we welcome the contributions made to date, while we are grateful to donors for their generosity, we urge donors to step forward with more funding.

There are already reports of some Lebanese families returning to Lebanon, due to lack of services and poor living conditions in Syria. UNHCR is continuing to monitor this situation, which further illustrates the impossible decisions displaced people are often faced with.

Mr. President,

More than 100,000 people have arrived in the north-east of Syria.

This is adding to needs in a region where three-quarters of the population already requires humanitarian assistance, and where conflict and other drivers of needs continue.

Late last month, an escalation in hostilities in the north-east killed or injured dozens of civilians. Damage to civilian infrastructure disrupted access to water, electricity and fuel for hundreds of thousands of people. And several humanitarian partners were forced to temporarily suspend activities.

The region is also facing an emerging outbreak of suspected cholera, with over 270 suspected cases and one death reported to date in the north-east.

Many of these cases are in Al-Hol camp, where tens of thousands of people – again, most of them women and children – are living in crowded, detention-like conditions. The lack of adequate testing facilities in Al-Hasakeh, along with declining resources for health services, poses a serious risk to containing the cholera outbreak.

Meanwhile, an estimated 7,800 people fleeing Lebanon have arrived in north-west Syria where needs, displacement and civilian casualties are already high as a result of hostilities.

Mr. President, Members of the Council,

Already facing staggering levels of need and overstretched humanitarian services, host communities are pressed even further.

Our partners have described a family in Homs that was already facing severe food insecurity, hosting some 20 family members who have fled Lebanon.

Or a classroom in Aleppo, designed for up to 45 students, now overflowing with more than 70 children.

These are communities where humanitarian assistance has already had to be dramatically scaled back.

Funding for the Humanitarian Response Plan stands at only 28 per cent, and about 2 million fewer people are receiving critical aid each month now than a year ago.

The impact on food security is particularly alarming.

Nearly 13 million people are already facing acute food insecurity in Syria – this is the fifth highest total globally – while the World Food Programme has been forced to reduce its assistance by 80 per cent in the past two years due to funding cuts.

Worryingly, the latest Hunger Hotspots Report, issued by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, identifies Syria as a country of “very high concern,” among the 12 countries most at risk for further deteriorating conditions in the coming six months.

As the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria and the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis warned in a joint statement last week: Unless more funding is received, the consequences will be dire.

More funding is needed to help some 2.5 million people withstand the winter months, which are setting in.

The situation is particularly serious for displaced people in camps and informal sites.

In north-west Syria, some 1.4 million internally displaced persons require urgent assistance, including 730,000 people still living in tents. Again, women and children, who make up the majority of these people, stand to suffer the most.

Without additional funding, respiratory infections and hospitalizations are likely to surge, particularly among young children, even as health assistance has been scaled back. And millions of children will lose out on school due to lack of heating.

Mr. President,

The serious limitations on resources make direct and efficient humanitarian assistance via all available routes even more essential.

In this regard, I welcome the Government of Syria’s extension of permission, as the Deputy Special Envoy also mentioned, for the UN to use the Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’i border crossings to deliver assistance from Türkiye to north-west Syria until 13 February 2025.

The cross-border operation is a critical lifeline for nearly a million people a month in Idleb and Northern Aleppo.

Funding shortfalls also reinforce the importance of strengthened investment in early recovery assistance under the Humanitarian Response Plan and the new Early Recovery Strategy.

For example, investing in rehabilitating irrigation systems will allow for greater food production and expand agriculture livelihoods – critical given this year’s wheat harvest is expected to be nearly 50 per cent below the pre-crisis level. Critical also because of the food security figures I shared earlier.

Similar interventions are needed in the health, water, education and energy sectors, all of which have been decimated by years of conflict and crisis.

Finally, Mr. President, the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria underlines the importance of sustained progress towards peace in Syria, and across the region.

We once again urge support for Special Envoy Pedersen’s efforts to facilitate a political solution in Syria – an essential step towards ending this decade-long humanitarian crisis and enabling the people of Syria to rebuild their lives and restore hope for a better future.

Media contacts:

In New York: Eri Kaneko, kaneko@un.org, +1 917 208 8910

In Geneva: Jens Laerke, laerke@un.org, +41 79 472 9750