The United Nations humanitarian response in Syria is facing a critical shortage of money, with more Syrians needing help as the conflict has intensified, a UN official said Monday.
"We came together today in the face of an escalating conflict, which is having the predictable devastating humanitarian and human impact," John Ging said at the one-day Syria Humanitarian Forum in Geneva, .
Ging, director of operations at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said increased insecurity in Syria "remains a major obstacle to the full implementation of the humanitarian response plan."
He urged the donor community to scale up contributions to enable the UN and aid agencies to help people affected by the fighting in Syria. More than 350 people representing the donor community and organizations attended the Geneva meeting, dpa reported.
OCHA said the UN has to provide food assistance to 850,000 people this month compared to 500,000 people last month.
"In spite of the scale-up, the gap between the needs and the means is very much still there," he said. "If we don't get more money, people will die, and there will be more humanitarian suffering."
OCHA said it has received only 20 per cent of two appeals launched last month. One was 189 million dollars to assist Syrians internally displaced by the conflict, and the second was 193 million dollars to assist the more than 100,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon Jordan and Iraq. dpa tn fff Author: JT Nguyen
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