syria-un-20161121 7

United Nations Nations Unies Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs conflict and the Member States who have influence over them – through the Humanitarian Task Force as well as bilaterally – but our efforts are increasingly met with delays, blockages and rejections. Every month we encounter new bureaucratic challenges that need to be navigated. We have dealt with late approvals, approvals with restrictions on the number of beneficiaries, delays in clearing trucks at the warehouse, negotiations over routes, medical supplies removed or not approved, and additional clearances beyond the agreed two-step process. So far this month we have three times navigated these hurdles, three times deployed convoys to reach those who are in need. Two of these convoys, both to Wadi-Barada on 9 November and en route in Rural Damascus, to Duma on 17 November, reached the final Government of Syria checkpoint before being forced to turn back when Syrian security forces, believed to be the Syrian Republican Guard, demanded the cleared containers be opened and searched. This is in clear breach of agreed protocol and a possible security threat for our convoys and aid workers. An earlier third convoy to Harbnafseh (rural Hama), scheduled for 1 November, was blocked by pro-government armed elements while underway and also forced to turn back. Just yesterday, 20 November, an inter-agency convoy to Rastan in northern rural Homs could not proceed due to delays at the check point in terms of approval to proceed, as well as shelling in the area once approval had finally been received. As a result as I said earlier, no inter-agency cross-line convoys have been able to deliver aid yet this month. We have now gone four months without delivering aid to anyone via an inter-agency cross-line convoy before the 19th of the month. The result is that we are once again unlikely to reach more than a small portion of those whom we do receive formal approval to access. Mr President, Syrians have also been impacted by a series of anti-ISIL operations. This has resulted in initial displacement of 8,000 people in the north of Raqqa governorate. We are foreseeing the need to support over 400,000 people as operations progress further. In al-Bab, anti-ISIL operations are taking place just a kilometre outside the city and planning for a more immediate response for the over 100,000 people estimated to be in the city and surrounding area is in its final stages. Let me be clear: when people need our support, we are working and will continue to work day and night to try to reach them no matter who or where they are - and that’s not being virtuous, that’s our job providing you give the funds for us to do it, and if we can get safe access. Mr President, Members of the Council, I have had little positive to report on the implementation of the resolutions of this Council as regards the humanitarian situation in Syria. Airstrikes and shelling kill and injure more and more civilians, and protected civilian infrastructure is destroyed with implications that will resonate for years to come. Besiegement is increasing, people are going hungry. Schools and hospitals ar