Besides sending humanitarian aid to Syria, Russia is also assisting UN humanitarian teams working in the conflict-stricken country, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Amos met on Friday in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov discussing the humanitarian situation in Syria among other issues.
“Russia supports individual appeals, and most recently, for example, have not only sent aid to Syria but has been at the forefront of supporting our [UN] work and trying to unlock some of the political blockages in relation to humanitarian access [in Syria],” she said.
The high-ranking UN official, who paid a visit to Syria in March, said about a million of people there needed humanitarian assistance at that time.
“Some needed help with food, but also with health care, with shelter,” Amos said. “Of course separate to the help the people need inside Syria, there are people, who are crossing the borders, who are refugees, and need help outside.”
According to her, Syrians mostly flee to Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and some to Iraq, as these countries keep their borders open.
“The Jordanians tell us that they have got over 100,000 of [Syrian] refugees, the numbers in Turkey are coming up… Over the last few days they have seen a substantial increase in those numbers as the conflict intensifies within Syria,” she said.
Some 27,000 Syrian refugees, who fled the country from the ongoing bloody conflict, were registered in Lebanon, 24,000 in Turkey and 4,800 in Iraq, according to the UN data provided by Amos.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 12,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, most of them civilians.
Amos met on Friday in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov discussing the humanitarian situation in Syria among other issues.
“Russia supports individual appeals, and most recently, for example, have not only sent aid to Syria but has been at the forefront of supporting our [UN] work and trying to unlock some of the political blockages in relation to humanitarian access [in Syria],” she said.
The high-ranking UN official, who paid a visit to Syria in March, said about a million of people there needed humanitarian assistance at that time.
“Some needed help with food, but also with health care, with shelter,” Amos said. “Of course separate to the help the people need inside Syria, there are people, who are crossing the borders, who are refugees, and need help outside.”
According to her, Syrians mostly flee to Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and some to Iraq, as these countries keep their borders open.
“The Jordanians tell us that they have got over 100,000 of [Syrian] refugees, the numbers in Turkey are coming up… Over the last few days they have seen a substantial increase in those numbers as the conflict intensifies within Syria,” she said.
Some 27,000 Syrian refugees, who fled the country from the ongoing bloody conflict, were registered in Lebanon, 24,000 in Turkey and 4,800 in Iraq, according to the UN data provided by Amos.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 12,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, most of them civilians.
Source : Afghan Voice Agency (AVA), International Service
