U.N. relief agency seeks more Syrian aid

GENEVA — The conflict in Syria is expanding the emergency needs of its population faster than international aid agencies are able to provide relief despite a big increase in aid deliveries, a top U.N. aid official warned Monday, calling for more governments to provide greater financial support.

Despite “tremendous political obstruction by the government of Syria” and an increasingly dangerous operating environment, aid agencies expect to provide food aid to 850,000 Syrians in July, up from half a million last month, the official, John Ging, director of operations for the U.N. office coordinating humanitarian aid, told reporters in Geneva.

“But the gap between the needs and means is still there,” he said.

President Bashar Assad's government had “largely respected” an agreement reached with the United Nations six weeks ago to facilitate increased delivery of humanitarian relief, Ging said, but officials were still holding back issuing visas to aid agency staff from the United States, Britain, Canada, France and a number of other countries because of their nationalities.

“That is something we object to very strongly,” Ging said.

Ging spoke after a meeting of the Syrian Humanitarian Forum in which United Nations and other international relief agencies appealed for $189 million to support aid to civilians inside Syria and $193 million for aid to refugees who are flowing into neighboring countries.

The United States, the European Union and Britain had pledged increased financial support, but both appeals were about 80 percent unfunded, Ging said.

“If we don't get more money, people will die, and there will be more humanitarian suffering,” Ging said.

An average of around 700 people a day are fleeing from Syria into Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, three-quarters of them women and children and many of them in a desperate condition with nothing more than the clothes they are wearing, Panos Moumtzis, a regional coordinator for the U.N. refugee agency said.

Besides the devastating effect of the fighting between government forces and armed opposition groups, Syria also faces a reduced harvest this year as a result of persistent drought, Ging said.

“The real tragedy is that every hour and every day that passes without a political solution we will be faced with increased humanitarian needs,” said Claus Sorensen, director general of the European Community Humanitarian Office.