UN calls for $150M urgent relief in Syria

Orient Net, March 28, 2018 – A UN official in Syria says aid groups need $150 million to provide urgent relief to a quarter-million people recently displaced in Syria, according to AP.
 UN coordinator Ali al-Za’atari says at least 80,000 people have fled the Assad regime’s offensive in the eastern Ghouta suburbs, where shelling and airstrikes have killed hundreds of people in recent weeks. He says 50,000 are still living in shelters, with many requiring medical care.
He says another 180,000 displaced Syrians are in need in the northern town of Tel Rifaat.
On Wednesday, he told reporters in Damascus that “finance is coming but is still beneath the required level.”
Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said on Tuesday, more than 1,700 had been killed in eastern Ghouta since the passage of the ceasefire resolution 2401 (2018) on 24 February, the Relief Web reported.
Meanwhile, nearly 52,000 civilians had taken refuge in eight shelters in rural Damascus, he said, most of them overcrowded with only limited access to food and medical assistance. It was imperative for humanitarian organizations to reach people in eastern Ghouta, particularly in Douma. The United Nations and its partners stood ready to enter Douma with food for up to 16,500 people, pending facilitation letters from the regime.