The United Nations is warning that the number of people inside Syria needing humanitarian aid could rise sharply from 2.5 million now to 4 million by early next year if the civil war grinds on at its current deadly pace.
John Ging, operations director for the UN humanitarian office, said the UN is also projecting that a failure to end the fighting will lead to an increase in the number of Syrians fleeing to neighbouring countries, from almost 400,000 at present to around 700,000 early next year.
Ging was speaking ahead of Friday’s fifth Syria Humanitarian Forum in Geneva where between 350 and 400 representatives of governments, international organisations and aid groups will hear reports on the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria.
“People need to be aware of just how desperate the situation is inside Syria for the people there, how unbearable it is, and how they are suffering and falling into ever deeper despair and humanitarian need,” Ging said. “It’s just getting a lot worse very rapidly for the ordinary people.”
At the moment, he said, the UN and other aid organisations were only able to reach 1.5 million of the 2.5 million people in need of assistance inside Syria – and one of the reasons was funding.
Ging said the humanitarian programme for Syrians still inside the country, and the programme for Syrian refugees in camps in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and other neighbouring countries, were both “seriously underfunded”, with donors providing less than 50 per cent of the amount needed.
As of November 2, the UN appeal for US$348 million to provide food, water and other humanitarian aid for those inside Syria had received US$157 million – just 45 per cent of the requirement. Ging said about half the aid was being delivered to conflict areas and half to those who have fled to safer areas inside the country.
