UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations relief official on Thursday said that civilians remain extremely vulnerable in northeast Syria, while an estimated 1.9 million people require humanitarian assistance.
Among these people, the majority, 1.34 million people, are in areas outside of Syrian Government control, Ursula Mueller, UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council.
"Over the past weeks, renewed hostilities in and around Tal Tamer district have displaced an additional 1,600 civilians to Qamishli, while another 800 people have arrived in Ar-Raqqa," Mueller added. This adds to the hundreds of thousands of people already displaced in northeast Syria.
Although the United Nations and its humanitarian partners scaled up the response in the northeast in the second half of 2019, Mueller warned that significant gaps remained, especially after the adoption of Security Council resolution 2504 and the removal of Al Ramtha (Syria/Jordan border) and Al Yarubiyah (Iraq/Syria border) as authorized crossing points.
Mueller added if viable alternatives to Al Yarubiah are not found for medical items, the gap between the humanitarian response and humanitarian needs will increase further.
"The first shortages are expected already by March for medical facilities providing reproductive health care, that were previously supported by cross-border operations," Mueller said, adding that "a larger gap in medical items could occur by May."
