Syria: UN Ready to Rush Food, Medicines into Besieged Homs Once Green Light Is Given
New York, Jan 28 2014 - United Nations trucks in Syria are on standby to deliver urgently needed food and medicines to
500 besieged families who have been trapped in the Old City of Homs without any aid for almost two years, once the
warring parties allow access, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced today.
Nearly 1.6 million civilians in other parts of Syria have been without regular WFP supplies for months.
Access for humanitarian aid to trapped civilians is one of the major issues being discussed at ongoing talks between the
Syrian Government and the main opposition group in Geneva which seek to end nearly three years of civil war in which
well over 100,000 people have been killed and nearly 9 million others driven from their homes since the conflict erupted
between the Government and various groups seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking to reporters after the latest round of talks, UN-Arab League Special Representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is
mediating the discussions, told reporters there has been no movement today on getting aid to Homs. “We have not had any
breakthrough, but we are still at it and this is good enough as far as I am concerned,” he said before announcing that
he has cancelled the afternoon meeting between the two sides.
Once all parties on the ground allow a UN interagency convoy to proceed, WFP will deliver 500 family rations and 500
bags of wheat flour to those under siege in the Old City, enough for 2,500 people for one month, WFP spokesperson
Elisabeth Byrs told a news briefing in Geneva.
The agency also plans to send 100 boxes of Plumpy’doz, a specialized nutrition product which helps to treat stunting and
acute malnutrition in children, and is prepared to provide ready-to-eat food rations to women and children who choose to
be evacuated from the Old City of Homs, if this is granted.
WFP and its partners have had irregular access to other towns in the Homs region, including Al Rastan, Al Houlah,
Talbisah, Ter Ma’ala and Ghanto, meaning that food deliveries have only been possible every three to six months through
interagency convoys, when conditions allow.
The agency is increasingly concerned for people living in hard-to-reach areas across Syria with no access to food
assistance, Ms. Byrs stressed. Over 775,000 people in Al-Raqqa, Al-Hassakeh and Deir Ezzor have not received WFP aid for
consecutive months, while over 40 locations in Rural Damascus remain under siege, affecting an estimated 800,000 people.
WFP has repeatedly called for sustained access to all parts of Syria where regular access to communities is limited. “It
is not just one convoy into the Old City of Homs but access to all communities needing help that is required,” Ms. Byrs
said.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has provided a list of supplies to the Government for approval on the interagency
convoy, including emergency medical kit and a cholera kit, soap and hygiene materials, water treatment supplies and oral
rehydration salts, winter clothing for infants and polio vaccines, spokesperson Marixie Mercado told the briefing.
All of those supplies are available at the UNICEF Homs warehouse, about 10 kilometres from the Old City, and can go in
as soon as they have a green light.
Meanwhile the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that it has been
unable to deliver aid to 18,000 residents of the Yarmouk camp near Damascus for the past 10 days.
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
ENDS