syria-un-20151027 2

The mission of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors. Rising levels of fighting and violence over the last few weeks have had an enormous humanitarian impact, resulting in large-scale death, injury and displacement to civilians, particularly in northern Syria. Indiscriminate attacks on civilian-populated areas continue with impunity. In Aleppo city, for example, pro-Government forces and non-State armed opposition groups have continued mutual shelling inside civilian-populated areas of Aleppo city, with hundreds killed and injured in September. Meanwhile, clashes erupted in the city in late September between the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the Nusrah Front, and non-State armed opposition groups, resulting in multiple civilian deaths and temporarily impacting humanitarian access to eastern Aleppo city. On 23 October, the main access route from Hama to western Aleppo city was cut due to an offensive by ISIL. We are very concerned at this development, which places at further risk some 700,000 people living in the western part of the city. Latest estimates indicate that over 120,000 people have been displaced in northern Syria since early October as a result of aerial bombardment, as well as ground offensives among the parties. This includes some 45,000 people displaced from the southern outskirts of Aleppo city to relatively safer areas to the west and south following a Government forces offensive over the last week. Meanwhile, approximately 80,000 people have been displaced from northern Hama and southern Idlib governorates to relatively safer parts of these governorates since early October following an offensive by Government forces. Elsewhere in Syria, thousands more have been displaced in Homs, Rural Damascus, and Deir ez-Zor governorates over the past few weeks. The pace of displacement in Syria remains relentless. Well over 1.2 million people have been displaced so far this year, many for the second or third time. Further displacement is expected to continue at a similar rate unless there is an end to the fighting. Attacks on health facilities and health workers also remain relentless. The UN and partners have recorded attacks on five hospitals in Hama, Idleb and Aleppo governorates since the launch of recent offensives, leading to a number of casualties and their immediate closure due to severe infrastructural damage exacerbating an already dire situation for civilians living in these areas. Since the start of the conflict, Physicians for Human Rights has documented attacks on at least 313 medical facilities and the death of 679 medical workers. Such attacks should cease immediately; parties to the conflict must ensure respect for, and protection of, health facilities, workers and patients under international humanitarian law. While we know where those considered most vulnerable are located, humanitarian organisations are still not able to get sustained, unimpeded access to millions of affected people. Latest estimates indicate that some 4.5 million people are living in hard-to-reach areas. Despite our best efforts, we have only been able to reach a small fraction of people living in these areas in 2015 as a result of active conflict, shifting front-lines, bureaucratic hurdles, and conditions imposed by the parties. The parties to the conflict continue to use siege as a weapon of war in Syria. Following a comprehensive review, we now estimate that some 393,700 people are living under siege in Syria, including some 200,000 people in Deir-ez-Zor city by ISIL; some 181,200 people by the Syrian Government in various locations in eastern Ghutah, as well as Darayya and Zabadani in Rural Damascus; and some 12,500 people by non-State arme