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 A month after the 15-member council achieved rare unity to
unanimously approve a resolution demanding rapid, safe and
unhindered aid access, including across borders, U.N. chief Ban
Ki-moon said the situation "remains extremely challenging."
In Ban's first report to the council on the implementation of the
February 22 resolution — obtained by Reuters on Sunday — he said
175,000 people remain besieged by government forces and 45,000
people trapped by opposition groups in several areas.
No new ceasefires were brokered to gain access to these areas and
there were breaches of existing ceasefires, Ban said.
Some 9.3 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance, Ban
said, while another 2.6 million have fled the three-year civil war,
sparked in March 2011 by a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
"Humanitarian access in Syria remains extremely challenging for
humanitarian organizations," Ban said. "Delivering life-saving
items, in particular, medicines, remains difficult. And the
assistance reaching people continues to fall far short of what is
required to cover even their basic needs."
The Security Council expressed "its intent to take further steps in
the case of non-compliance" with the resolution. But diplomats say
Russia is unlikely to agree to any action, such as sanctions, if
Syria's government was found to be at fault.
The Security Council is due to discuss Ban's report on Friday,
diplomats said.
Russia, supported by China, has shielded its ally Syria on the
Security Council during the three-year war. They had previously
vetoed three resolutions that would have condemned Syria's
government and threatened it with possible sanctions.
In the 13-page report, Ban said there were significant challenges to
the delivery of aid in Syria.
"Including: the need for multiple requests for approval of
inter-agency convoys, which often go unanswered; the Government's
lack of internal communication of approvals to those on the ground,
resulting in denial of access or delays at checkpoints; and
continued insecurity," Ban said.
"Increased fighting between armed opposition groups, including
between Free Syrian Army (FSA)-aligned and ISIS (Islamic State of
Iraq), has complicated the delivery of assistance including the
cutting off of key access routes in some locations in the northern
parts of the country," he said.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than
136,000 people have been killed during the conflict.
Ban said that as the violence intensified, more people were slipping
out of the reach of humanitarian help.
"Around 3.5 million people are now estimated to be in need of
assistance in hard-to-reach areas, an increase of 1 million since
the beginning of 2014," he said.
NO WALKING AWAY
Ban reported that in the past month, "there were continued reports
of artillery shelling and air strikes, including the use of barrel
bombs, by government forces. Car bombings and suicide attacks,
including against civilian objects, resulted in civilian deaths and
injury during the reporting period."
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He said many of the car bombs and suicide attacks were claimed by
Islamist extremist groups the Islamic State of Iraq and Jabhat
Al-Nusra, while "government-controlled cities and towns, including
Damascus, were subject to mortar attacks by armed opposition
groups."
"Reported daily death tolls were on average exceeding 200 people,
including civilians, inside Syria," Ban said. Following the
adoption of the council resolution, he said the Syrian government
had established a working group with the United Nations and the
Syrian Arab Red Crescent to discuss ways to increase aid access.
The United Nations presented a list of 258 hard-to-reach areas to
the working group, but many of those locations have yet to be
accessed with assistance, Ban said.
"Limited aid was delivered to a number of hard-to-reach areas in the
reporting period for the first time in several months," he said.
"However, there were several instances in which aid convoys either
could not proceed or were prevented from carrying essential items,
such as medicines."
"Since the adoption of the resolution, medical supplies have been
removed by government officials from inter-agency convoys to (Homs
and rural Damascus) ... which would have assisted around 201,000
people," he said.
Ban said aid supplies were allowed to be brought into Syria through
government-controlled crossings with Lebanon and Jordan. The
Yarubiya crossing with Iraq, however, remained closed because the
Syrian government "objected to the raising of the Democratic Union
Party (PYD) Kurdish flag there," he noted.
Following repeated requests from the United Nations, the Syrian
government allowed U.N. aid trucks to cross from Turkey for the
first time during the conflict.
But when the United Nations asked for more cross-border access,
particularly from Jordan and Turkey, Syria's government "restated
its position that any border crossing can be opened as long as it is
a 'legal' official crossing point and will not compromise the
sovereignty of the Government of Syria."
U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos had urged the Security Council to act to
increase humanitarian access in Syria. Amos has repeatedly expressed
frustration that violence and red tape have slowed aid deliveries to
a trickle.
"Syria is now the biggest humanitarian and peace and security crisis
facing the world," Ban said. "The United Nations does not have the
option of walking away from Syria."
(Editing by Jan Paschal)
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