YouSaid · the spoken record

Lowcock

lines on the record: 570
first: 2017-09-27
most recent: 2021-06-15
sittings or episodes: 46
sources: un-security-council

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“One hundred and ninety partners, most of them Yemeni, get help to millions of people in thousands of locations every single month. Last year, we increased the coverage of food assistance from 3 million people a month in January to more than 7 million a month in December. For 2018, the World Food Programme has plans to reach 10 million people a month, and we are doing the same thing in other sectors, including water, health, sanitation and other core services. The humanitarian operation in Yemen is already one of the largest in the world. We have five humanitarian hubs in place to coordinate assistance across the country, and we are exploring opening more, including in Ma'rib and Mukalla.”
2018-04-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8235 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: Yemen remains the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Three quarters of the population - more than 22 million people - urgently require some form of humanitarian help, including 8.4 million people who are struggling to find their next meal. The crisis is overwhelming families and institutions and is now affecting nearly every sector and aspect of Yemeni life. With swift and joint action, conditions for the Yemeni people can improve. On the political front, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General Martin Griffiths just briefed the Security Council. Humanitarian agencies have scaled up assistance and strengthened their capacity in Yemen. The relief operation is one of the largest and most complex in the world.”
2018-04-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8235 (2018) · source
“I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported our appeal over the last year, including our top donors: the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Norway, Canada, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Qatar, Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Resolution 2401 (2018) was adopted just over a month ago. I ask all in the Council to make the resolution a reality. Whatever the difficulty, the United Nations and its partners remain determined to follow through, for the sake of the Syrian people.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“Secondly, we have confirmed a new allocation of $20 million from the Syria Humanitarian Fund, which is managed by my Office, for eastern Ghouta and those displaced from Afrin to provide shelter materials, improve sanitation for displaced people, ensure that safe water is available, provide life-saving medicines and medical services and put in place measures to enhance protection in relocation sites. The United Nations and its partners, on average, reach 7.5 million people every month with life-saving humanitarian assistance across the whole of Syria. Clearly, without that assistance, the situation would be even more catastrophic than it is now and the loss of life even greater. The United Nations has no money of its own to do those things. We can do them only because we receive voluntary contributions from our donors.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“We need the support of all Council members and members of the International Syria Support Group humanitarian task force to do their part to exert their individual and collective influence over the parties. A few days ago, the Government of Syria and others asked for more United Nations help with humanitarian aid in eastern Ghouta. In response, we have, first, proposed that a team of United Nations emergency response experts be deployed to strengthen efforts on the ground. Visa requests for the team have been submitted.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“As we sit here today, almost at the end of the month, we have reached some 137,000 people in need through inter-agency convoys - that is, cross-line convoys sent to hard-to-reach and besieged areas - to Tell Rifaat, Al-Dar al-Kabirah and Douma. That is limited, incremental progress, compared to the first part of the year, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the team on the ground and some of those around this table. But we are essentially just given crumbs - an occasional convoy here and there, often, coincidentally, shortly before our monthly briefings to the Council. A total of 5.6 million Syrians in acute need cannot live on crumbs, and with a quarter of the year gone, our level of access is currently far worse than it was this time last year.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“We hope that access to Raqqa city will be possible for humanitarian aid deliveries via Qamishli, Manbij, Aleppo, Hamah and Horns, depending on operational and logistical arrangements. The United Nations and our partners are now preparing a humanitarian assessment mission, which is likely to take place next week. Next I shall address Rukban, on the Syria-Jordan border. United Nations partners received permission from the Syrian authorities on 8 March to organize a humanitarian convoy from Damascus to reach people in need along the Syria-Jordan border. Last week, on 19 March, the United Nations itself received permission to join that humanitarian mission. Preparations are ongoing, and a first humanitarian convoy is expected to deploy soon. As the Council knows, we have been seeking approval for that for many months.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“On 19 March, we received approval from the Syrian authorities for an assessment mission to Raqqa city by the United Nations Mine Action Service, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Health Organization. As Council members know, we have been seeking agreement to that for some time. That was on 19 March. Three days later, on 22 March, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security deployed a team to conduct a security assessment. They report that while the city is considered calm and stable, considerable risk remains. Raqqa city is still highly contaminated with landmines, unexploded ordnances, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“On 21 March, air strikes on Kafr Battikh village, also in southern rural Idlib governorate, reportedly killed scores more. The next day, the central market in Harim town was hit by an air strike, reportedly killing 35 people, including many women and children. On 12 March, air strikes also resumed in southern Syria, with attacks being reported in and around Dar'a city. There have been no air strikes in those areas since an agreement was reached last year on the establishment of a de-escalation zone for parts of the south of the country. That therefore appears to be a major unwelcome development. Let me turn to Raqqa.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“Today, the Government of Turkey told us that it is positively disposed towards such access, and we plan to run convoys in the very near future. We know that needs are very substantial. In Idlib governorate, the situation remains catastrophic, with almost 400,000 people displaced since mid-December. Local capacity to assist is overstretched. Thousands more people are now arriving there from eastern Ghouta, with no sites or shelters available for the vast majority of them. We have received reports of an increase in violence in Idlib in recent days. According to local sources, on 20 March air strikes hit an IDP shelter on the outskirts of Haas village in southern rural Idlib governorate, reportedly killing at least 10 displaced people and injuring another 15.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“Two days ago, on 25 March, an inter-agency convoy to Tell Rifaat delivered assistance for some 50,000 people. However, overall, humanitarian partners are still struggling to gain sustainable access to the area. Moreover, access to Aleppo city for IDPs from Afrin district is currently restricted. Of particular concern are medical evacuations that are urgently required for severely sick people to receive care in specialized hospitals in Aleppo city. Four deaths due to the lack of proper health care have already been reported. Between 50,000 and 70,000 people are estimated still to be in Afrin city. Humanitarian access to the city and its outer perimeters is possible through cross- border operations mandated by the Council.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“That means access to the areas where civilians remain, through which they transit and to which they exit, such as collective shelters, in order to ensure that effective protection mechanisms are in place so that we can deter any possible violations and provide remedial protection support. Eastern Ghouta is not the only place in which humanitarian needs continue to increase. In north- western Syria, in recent weeks, an estimated 183,500 people have been displaced by hostilities in Afrin district in Aleppo governorate. The majority - some 140,000 people - have fled to Tell Rifaat and the remainder have gone to Nubl, Al-Zahraa, Manbij, Hasakah and surrounding areas. That massive influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) is putting a strain on host communities, which are already overwhelmed.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“Humanitarian organizations also need access to the people still trapped within eastern Ghouta, in particular in Douma, where fighting and siege continue. The United Nations and its partners are ready to proceed to Douma with food for up to 16,500 people, as well as health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, but facilitation letters need to be signed by the Government of Syria. I reiterate the Secretary-General's call on all parties to fully respect international humanitarian law and human rights law in order to ensure immediate humanitarian access and guarantee the protection of civilians, including in relation to displacements and evacuations. The United Nations and its partners require unimpeded access to all those affected by the situation in eastern Ghouta.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“There are a number of serious protection concerns related to risks of gender-based violence, unaccompanied and separated children and restrictions on movement. The United Nations is not in charge of the management of those shelters. However, since 13 March, together with humanitarian partners, we have mobilized a rapid response to provide evacuees with basic support in close coordination with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other local partners. So far, more than 130,000 non-food items have been distributed, 130 emergency toilets have been installed, and water trucking services have been provided to most shelters. In addition, supplies to feed more than 50,000 people and a total of 38 mobile health teams and 18 mobile medical teams are currently providing support to those in need inside the shelters.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“Nearly 20,000 combatants and civilians have been transported to locations in north- western Syria. Nearly 52,000 civilians from eastern Ghouta are currently being hosted in eight collective shelters in rural Damascus. That displaced population has endured months of limited access to food, medical care and other essential items. In the words of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Ali Al-Za'tari, who met and spoke to some of them, those people are "tired, hungry, traumatized and afraid". Most of the collective shelters do not have the capacity or infrastructure to accommodate such large numbers of people. They are extremely overcrowded and severely lacking in basic water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“The World Health Organization has reported that attacks on health facilities, health workers and health infrastructure were recorded during the first two months of the year at three times the rate that we saw during 2017. In recent weeks in Damascus city, at least 78 people were reportedly killed and another 230 injured by shells fired from eastern Ghouta. That includes reports of at least 35 people killed and scores wounded on 20 March, when Kashkul market in Jaramana, a suburb in the south-eastern part of the city, was struck by a rocket. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced from Douma, Harasta, Sagba and Kafr Batna in recent days and weeks. So far, reports indicate that some 80,000 civilians have been taken to places in Damascus city and rural Damascus.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: As all members of the Council know, the Syrian conflict has now entered its eighth year. When weapons speak, civilians pay the price - a relentless price with horrific violence, bloodshed and unspeakable suffering. The past few months have been some of the worst yet for many civilians in Syria. Today I want to start with the situation in eastern Ghouta. Since the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018) on 24 February, military operations in eastern Ghouta, in particular air strikes, have reportedly killed more than 1,700 people. Thousands more have been injured. Attacks on critical civilian infrastructure, such as medical facilities, continue to be reported. There have been at least 28 reported attacks on health facilities since mid-February and more than 70 verified incidents since the beginning of the year.”
2018-03-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8217 (2018) · source
“The Council has the means to investigate violations of the law. The Council also has the means to enhance accountability when that law is violated. There are no humanitarian solutions to conflict. We all know that peace and political solutions are what will disrupt the Vicious cycle of conflict and hunger. The Security Council's main responsibility is peace and international security. In other words, the Council can help prevent famine from ever occurring again.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“International humanitarian law is very clear: it prohibits starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare; it prohibits attacking, destroying, removing or rendering useless objects that are indispensable to the survival of the civilian population; it requires that humanitarian personnel and assets be respected and protected; and it requires that all parties to conflict allow and facilitate impartial humanitarian relief for civilians in need and that they ensure that humanitarian personnel have the freedom of movement to carry out life-saving work. While parties to conflict bear the primary responsibility for respecting international humanitarian law, all States carry the duty to ensure that that law is respected. Members of the Security Council have influence over parties to conflicts.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“Food-sellers and traders face looting and exorbitant costs to get food to their clients. International humanitarian law is designed to protect against hunger in armed conflict. The fundamental rules of distinction, proportionality and precaution serve to safeguard civilian objects necessary for food production and distribution.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“In cities, fighting hinders other food production, transportation and distribution to larger parts of the population, reducing access to food and causing prices to increase. When civilians exhaust their resilience, they are often forced to flee. Once people are displaced, food insecurity increases for both displaced people and their hosts - communities of people who themselves are often living on the cusp of survival. Hunger is the clear corollary of the vicious cycle of displacement and conflict. The behaviour of combatants in these contexts is often atrocious. Humanitarian access - both by agencies to reach people and for people to reach aid - is too often difficult or denied. In some cases, starvation is being used as a method of warfare. Warring parties damage or destroy water systems, farms, livestock and markets.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“We therefore have to build on the experience of last year and sustain and expand our efforts in those countries, with more funding and better access, while we continue to join up humanitarian life-saving with longer-term development efforts. We also need to build upon the vast experience in the humanitarian system, which, over the past decades, has become more effective, efficient and better funded. We have learned a difficult lesson: between hunger and death there lies disease. Our response has become more professional and more integrated. We cover health, nutrition and education, in addition to food, water and shelter, which used to be our focus. Most people affected by conflict live in rural areas, but South Sudan's former breadbasket, the Equatorias, has nearly emptied as farmers have fled to Uganda.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“Nearly 500 million undernourished people - and almost 80 per cent of the world's 155 million stunted children - live in countries affected by conflict. My colleagues at the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme, together with the European Union, released a new study yesterday confirming that conflict - often conflated with extreme climatic shock and high prices of staple foods - is now the main driver ofglobal food insecurity. That includes the four countries where there was a famine risk last year. Famine was prevented in those countries only through concerted international efforts.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“That would not have happened without international action and support, including help with safety net schemes in some of the poorest countries over the past 20 years, which have been able to scale up and down as harvests fail or succeed and which have been adopted into national policy frameworks. That means that we do not have to face situations in which drought automatically turns into famine. While most of the world is better off and faces fewer risks of famine and hunger, some people still experience the opposite. The remaining risk of famine and hunger is now concentrated in a relatively small number of countries affected by large-scale, severe and protracted conflict. Nearly two thirds of the world's hungry live in countries in conflict.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“In the past 50 years, dramatic improvements in agriculture, from plant breeding to pest prevention to storage to irrigation to transportation, produced a fourfold increase in food grain production using only 12 per cent more agricultural land. Transportation networks, improvements in cold-chain technology, science and trade allow food to be available more consistently and more predictably. That trend is likely to continue. Science and human ingenuity are likely to continue to increase productivity, and we will seize the enormous potential to develop agricultural land in less productive areas of the world with today's technology and rising demand. Secondly, we have witnessed a global reduction in poverty. Large numbers of previously poor people have gained purchasing power over larger volumes of food now being produced.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: Famines and extreme hunger have been a part of the human experience since the first person walked the Earth. Yet it is possible to eradicate famine from the human experience within our lifetime. I would like to take a few moments to explain to the Security Council why I think that is the case and how it can help achieve that goal. Despite the wildest predictions, famines have become less frequent and less lethal over the past few decades. That is an big achievement. What happened? First, we have seen a dramatic expansion in agricultural output and productivity, making more food available and making it Cheaper.”
2018-03-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8213 (2018) · source
“Over the 15 years since I first visited the country, infrastructure in many major cities has improved, access to education has increased, child mortality rates have fallen and immunization rates have increased. We need to strengthen our support to the Congolese people. For Mwasi, the local Government and humanitarian agencies provide aid for her survival. Her new neighbours help with food for the children when they can. I asked her about her hopes for the future. She wants to be resettled, given a small plot of land to farm, and get her children back into school. It is not much to ask for, is it?”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“I ask Council members today to ensure that the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is on the agenda of their Governments and to encourage high-level participation and pledges on 13 April. We also need solutions to address the root causes of the worsening crisis, including by making progress on the political front and fair elections. We need the Democratic Republic of the Congo's neighbours to behave responsibly as well. While the violence persists, all parties must take steps to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, in line with their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Progress in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is possible.”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“It is creating space for humanitarian delivery and protecting civilians. Things would unquestionably be much worse without the Mission. Underfunding is the single largest impediment to the humanitarian response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This year, our appeal requires $1.7 billion - nearly four times what we secured last year. The Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and the United Nations will, on 13 April, co-host in Geneva the first-ever high-level humanitarian conference on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The goal is to secure immediate and substantial financial contributions and to launch a multi-year campaign in support of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“I had constructive discussions with the authorities on tackling these challenges and on how the Government can fulfil its responsibility for the provision of services and protection to the affected population, and on what they can do to facilitate humanitarian access through the quicker issuance of Visas and lower tariffs, fees and faster customs clearance for aid supplies. Minister Kaag and I also witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement in Tanganyika between the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator and the provincial Governor to reduce local taxes and fees for humanitarian assistance. The Government in Kinshasa told us that it would support similar agreements in other provinces. I also want to emphasize the importance of the work of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“They have so little, yet they welcome their brothers and sisters from within and outside the country into their homes when those people are displaced by violence. Without humanitarian assistance, things would be much worse. In 2017, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners reached more than 4.2 million people with life-saving protection and aid. This year, we aim to reach 10.5 million. To scale up the response, we have reinforced our leadership, strengthened our field presence and stepped up our advocacy. Humanitarian agencies continue to deliver despite persistent insecurity and bureaucratic impediments. There have been kidnappings and hijackings of aid workers in recent weeks in Tanganyika.”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“I am glad that Jeanine Bandu Bahati has joined us as a briefer and to see Julienne Lusenge, a strong and courageous defender of women's rights and an activist against sexual violence, in the Chamber among the guests. Almost 746,000 Congolese have fled to neighbouring countries, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo itself hosts more than 540,000 refugees. Without a halt to the violence and a successful political transition, these numbers will all increase. What Minister Sigrid Kaag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands - with whom I travelled - and I saw last week requires our urgent action. There is despair, but there is also hope. The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are resilient and resourceful. I am very impressed by the selfless solidarity of many Congolese families.”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“Her entire family - traumatized, sobbing and destitute - are too terrified to contemplate returning home. Mwasi and her children are among the 4.5 million people displaced right now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Humanitarian needs caused by internal conflict have doubled over the past year. Thirteen million people need humanitarian assistance. More than 4.6 million children are acutely malnourished, including 2.2 million suffering severe acute malnutrition. We are seeing mushrooming epidemics including the worst outbreak of cholera in 15 years. There is also an epidemic of sexual violence, most of it unreported and unaddressed, and much of it against children.”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: The picture I am holding shows Mwasi Kallunga and her seven children, including her 18-month-old baby, Shabani. Members of the Council all have the picture in front of them. They can see that little Shabani has the distended belly of many malnourished children. I met them last Tuesday in Katanika camp, in Kalemie, in the stunning and rich landscape surrounding Lake Tanganyika in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mwasi's husband and two of her nine children were killed when her Village, 50 kilometres away, was attacked and burnt down by militiamen in January. They fled, walked for two straight days and now live in squalid conditions under a plastic sheet in a tiny so-called shelter in a congested, cramped, unsanitary, hilly camp at constant risk of fire and flood. Her children can no longer go to school.”
2018-03-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8207 (2018) · source
“The needs-based approach means that the United Nations will continue to seek to deliver aid and to provide services to millions of people in a principled manner regardless of where they are located. More than half of those in need are in Government-controlled areas. However, millions more people are not. What the Syrian people need has been made abundantly clear-protection, access to basic goods and services, an end to sieges and respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The Security Council has unanimously supported all such needs in adopting resolution 2401 (2018). I started today by answering questions that we have received regarding resolution 2401 (2018). I would like to end with a question for the Security Council. When will the resolution be implemented?”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“As the Secretary-General's report (S/2018/l38) details, while we continue to reach millions of people in urgent need in areas controlled by the Government of Syria and through the cross-border programmes mandated in resolution 2393 (2017), assistance across conflict lines to millions of people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas has completely collapsed in recent months. Unless that changes, we will soon see even more people dying from starvation and disease than from the bombing and shelling. The United Nations remains focused on reaching those most in need throughout the country, including the 5.6 million people considered to be in acute need.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“On average in 2017, over the entire 12-month period, we reached 165,000 people a month with cross-line convoys. That was completely inadequate. So far this year, we have reached a total of only 7,200 people through a single small convoy earlier this month. In other words, we were reaching more than 50 times as many people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas last year as to date this year. The main reason for the reduction in the number of convoys has been the consistent refusal by the Government of Syria to provide the necessary approvals and facilitation letters to support delivery.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“The infrastructure is almost completely destroyed, particularly in the central and the eastern areas, where ISIL was in control. In coordination with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the United Nations has dispatched 78 trucks carrying food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, education, water and sanitation items since last September, when ISIL was driven out. Finally, we remain concerned about the tens of thousands of people stranded in Rukban, in south- eastern Syria. We continue to seek the necessary agreements for convoys of life-saving assistance to them. As I said last week (see S/PV. 8186), there was a severe reduction, of nearly 40 per cent, in cross-line access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas in 2017 as compared to 2016.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“The delivery of aid already in local warehouses was also blocked. While an agreement to resume humanitarian deliveries was reached on 30 January, that agreement will end in March. NGO partners continue to deliver goods and services across the north-east. However, sustainable access for the United Nations is critical. Any protracted interruption of humanitarian assistance and services in the IDP sites may drive the displaced people back to areas where they are not safe. Earlier this month, the United Nations received clearance for the first assessment visit to Deir ez-Zor after it had been under the control of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for three and a half years. More than 100,000 people live in the town despite that fact that it is estimated to be 80 per cent destroyed.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“However, to date that has not been agreed by the Syrian side. In Raqqa city, conditions remain unsafe for the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Among those trying to return home, 637 people have been injured and more than 125 killed by unexploded ordinance since last October. Medical and other essential services are absent and access for humanitarian workers to the city remains precariously limited because the conditions are so dangerous. As I have said before, demining activities need to be accelerated as a matter of urgency. Humanitarian access for the United Nations and its implementing partners in Hasakah was limited for much of January due to the increased restrictions placed by the local authorities. United Nations convoys were blocked from travelling to the northeast from elsewhere within the country.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“Many are forced to live in makeshift camps or in the open air. Formal camps are overwhelmed, operating at up to 400 per cent of their capacity. The response is being stretched to its limits. We are receiving reports of civilian deaths and injuries and of restriction on the movement of many civilians as a result of military operations in Afrin. Those who risk moving continue to be stopped at exit points by the local authorities in Afrin, preventing them from accessing safer areas. We believe that, so far, approximately 5,000 people have reached the surrounding villages and Aleppo city. Tens of thousands are believed to be displaced within Afrin. The Turkish authorities have emphasized to us their willingness to facilitate humanitarian access. We would like to see aid convoys operated from Damascus.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“Since 18 February, more than 580 people are now reported to have been killed due to air and ground strikes in eastern Ghouta, with many more than 1,000 people injured. At the same time, hundreds of rockets fired from eastern Ghouta into Damascus have reportedly killed 15 people and injured more than 200. I now want to update the Security Council on the situation in other parts of the country. In Idlib, fighting continues to kill and injure civilians, destroy civilian infrastructure and result in large population movements. Since December, an estimated 385,000 people have been displaced, with many civilians moving north. Half of Idlib's population was already displaced. People are being forced to move yet again, with each disruption increasing their vulnerability. Civilians are concentrated in an ever- smaller area.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“Reports indicate that at least 30 civilians, including women and children, were killed. In Shafuniyeh, 14 people, including three women and four children, were reportedly killed and many others injured by airstrikes. Eighteen civilians, including drivers of ambulances, women and children, were reportedly received at health facilities in Shafuniyeh with difficulties breathing, consistent with the use of chlorine. One child reportedly died as a result. On the same day, two workers from local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were reportedly killed as a result of shelling on the besieged enclave. It was also reported that two health-care facilities in Saqba were taken out of service by airstrikes. In the past few days, shells have also reportedly continued to fall on Damascus city from eastern Ghouta.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“To quote the ICRC Middle East Director, who spoke about that yesterday: "It is impossible to bring a humanitarian convoy in five hours." Agencies now have years of experience in that area, and it can take a day simply to pass checkpoints, even when the parties have agreed. The goods then have to be offloaded. If there has been no humanitarian access since the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018) on Saturday, what has happened in the past few days? More bombing, fighting, death, destruction, maiming of women and children, hunger and misery - in other words, more of the same. On 26 February, two days ago, airstrikes, barrel bombs and artillery shelling were reported across eastern Ghouta, including in Harasta, Shafuniyeh, Otaya, Hosh Eldawahreh, Al-Ashari, Jobar, Beit Sawa, Hazerma, Hannnura, Nashabiyeh, Sagba and Douma.”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“Is there a ceasefire in Syria? No, and no. Have you got any inter-agency cross-line convoys through to hard-to-reach or besieged areas? No. Have you been given permission to access any of those locations? No. Have you received the necessary facilitation letters for convoys? No. Have there been any medical evacuations? No. Have any civilians left eastern Ghouta? No. Is there any actual improvement in the humanitarian situation in eastern Ghouta since the adoption of the resolution demanding, as it did, unimpeded access? No. Can you deliver assistance in eastern Ghouta during a humanitarian pause between 9 a.m. and 2 pm. local time?”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: We have received a lot of questions about resolution 2401 (2018), which the Security Council adopted on Saturday, 22 February, and its demand for a cessation of hostilities without delay for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria. I want to start today by answering the questions we have received. Is the United Nation ready to deliver to people who need humanitarian assistance? Yes. We have convoys ready to go to 10 besieged and hard-to-reach locations, including a 45-truck convoy with aid for 90,000 people to Douma and eastern Ghouta. Are you ready to support medical evacuations from eastern Ghouta? Yes, we are working very closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other health partners on that. Has resolution 2401 (2018) been implemented?”
2018-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8195 (2018) · source
“When an entire generation is robbed of its future, when hospital attacks have become the new normal, when sieges of entire cities and neighbourhoods have become a lasting reality for hundreds of thousands of people, the international community must take urgent and concrete action. I have said this before and I will say it again. What we need is a sustained cessation of hostilities, and we need it desperately - a cessation of violence that will enable the immediate, safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services, the evacuation of the critically sick and wounded and an alleviation of the suffering of the Syrian people. The Council can still save lives in eastern Ghouta, and elsewhere in Syria. I urge it to do so.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“In 2017, through November, approximately 53 cross-line convoys reached people in need, an average of nearly five convoys per month. A cumulative total of nearly 2 million people were reached in the first 11 months of 2017, or around 175,000 people per month. Therefore in 2017 we reached 175,000 a month; in the past three months we have reached 22,000 a month. Those are not reports or allegations. We have complete, factual information on this, because they are our convoys. Moreover, the 2017 access levels were themselves nearly 40 per cent below our access levels in 2016. Access is not only limited on aid deliveries, but we are also seeing growing challenges to our ability to independently assess needs on the ground and to monitor aid delivery.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Earlier this week, UNICEF issued a blank statement, as it could no longer find the words to describe the brutality of this war. Its only message was that "no words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones." This appalling violence is happening as we face significantly increased constraints on our ability to reach people trapped behind conflict lines. In recent months we have encountered greater difficulties in accessing people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas, particularly through cross-line convoys, than during any period since 2015. Since 1 December, for nearly three months, we have been able to deploy only three cross-line convoys, reaching just 67,200 people. Only 7,200 of those people were in besieged areas, less than 2 per cent of the overall besieged population.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Everyone knows that more than 700 people are in need of urgent medical evacuation to hospitals just miles away in Damascus city. We have all seen in recent days the images of bombs and mortars raining down on bakeries and medical facilities. According to reports documented by United Nations human rights colleagues, at least 346 civilians have been killed since the beginning of this month and close to 900 people have been injured. Members all heard the Secretary-General yesterday, in the Chamber, describing eastern Ghouta as "hell on Earth" and saying that we cannot "allow things to go on happening in this horrendous way". They also heard him pleading for "the immediate suspension of all war activities in eastern Ghouta" (S/PV8185, p. 2).”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source