UN official says half of Syrian population needs food assistance
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – More than seven million people in Syria are internally displaced and more than half of the population needs food assistance, said Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the UN, on Thursday.
At a UN Security Council (UNSC) briefing on Syria, Msuya added that acute malnutrition among children under five has surged threefold in the past five years. “As a result, more than 500,000 children will need life-saving treatment for acute malnutrition in 2024.”
“More people need humanitarian aid in Syria now than at any point in the crisis,” she emphasized. “And yet, funding for our humanitarian appeal has fallen to a record low.”
Msuya stated that vital health services are being reduced and the prices of medicine have surged 200 percent in two years.
She pointed out that referral services in Northeast Syria provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) for people who need more advanced health support will be suspended at the end of March. And in the northwest, 49 health facilities partially or fully suspended their operations at the end of 2023.
On March 16, the WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) said the Syrian conflict has left 16.7 million people in need of humanitarian aid and 15 million people in need of health assistance over the past 13 years.
Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said, “There are currently more Syrians in need of aid than any other time since the war began.”