syria-un-20171215 2

S/2017/1057 2/20 17-22479 2. The increase in fighting in besieged eastern Ghutah, along with the lack of access for commercial and humanitarian goods that worsened in early October, resulted in rapidly deteriorating conditions for the estimated 393,300 people who were trapped in the area. Although only eight people were evacuated in November, some 500 others, including 137 children, required urgent medical evacuations. Of those on the list for medical evacuation, nine people died in November, reportedly owing to a lack of medical evacuation and adequate treatment. 3. Some 34,000 people have reportedly returned to Raqqah city, most of them to the eastern and western outskirts. Despite the fact that districts were opened for civilian returns by the Kurdish Self Administration, following its demining efforts, humanitarian partners estimate that more than 200 people had to seek treatment for traumatic injuries sustained in Raqqah city owing to mine explosions that occurred after the cessation of military activities in the area. 4. Military operations in Dayr al-Zawr Governorate continued to impact civilians. Air strikes in Dayr al-Zawr reportedly hit unofficial camps and gathering points for internally displaced persons across the Governorate, many of them along the Euphrates River in ISIL-controlled areas between Mayadin and Albu Kamal. In the first three weeks of November, some 124,000 people were displaced from Dayr al-Zawr into Hasakah Governorate. 5. Military operations in the northern and eastern countryside of Hama Governorate continued to impact civilians. Heavy fighting between Government forces and non-State armed opposition groups resulted in the displacement of more than 90,000 people to various locations in Idlib Governorate between 1 October and 26 November. - 6. In November, United Nations humanitarian assistance reached millions of people in need from within the Syrian Arab Republic, including some 2,688,245 people who received food assistance through regular deliveries; 902,000 people were reached through cross-border convoys; and 228,950 people were reached through five humanitarian inter-agency cross-line convoys. Humanitarian inter-agency cross-line convoys reached 28,700 people in the besieged locations of Duma and Nashabiyah in Rif Dimashq, out of a total of 419,920 people besieged in the Syrian Arab Republic. 3. The United Nations-led intra-Syrian talks resumed in Geneva on 28 November, with the eighth round focusing on the 12 Living Intra-Syrian Essential Principles, which offer a vision of a future State that can be shared by all Syrians, and on a process and a schedule for drafting a new constitution and for holding United Nations-supervised elections pursuant to resolution 2254 (2015). On 11 November, the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States of America issued a statement confirming that the political solution to the conflict must be forged through the Geneva process pursuant to Security Council resolution 2254 (2015) and confirming the importance of de-escalation areas, including to help to facilitate unhindered humanitarian access. 4. Three of the four de-escalation areas — southern Syria, northern rural Homs Governorate, and Idlib — continued to witness an overall reduction in violence impacting civilians compared with the period prior to the memorandum on de-escalation of 4 May. However, pockets of violence in some parts of those de-escalation areas have been reported, and the situation in the fourth de-escalation area of eastern Ghutah, in Rif Dimashq, dramatically deteriorated over the course of November. Intensive air and ground-based strikes were reported daily beginning 14 November, along with ongoing armed clashes between various non-State armed opposition groups. At the same time, there were reports of regular rocket and morta