Syria has agreed to allow access for ground convoys to deliver medicine and food aid to 12 besieged areas during the month of June, the United Nations said on Friday.
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The UN says a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria – most surrounded by government forces – and another 4 million in hard-to-reach areas.
The United Nations (UN) had set a deadline for 1 June to deliver aid to besieged areas in Syria, which was part of an agreement for a cessation of hostilities brokered by the USA and Russian Federation.
The International Syria Support Group (ISSG) of countries backing the Syrian peace process had set a June 1 deadline for Syria’s government to allow humanitarian aid to all areas, including those in rebel hands, or risk having air drops imposed.
“As long as the World Food Program has not yet finalized its plans, I don’t think there’s something imminent”, UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday of the potential for aid drops.
Ramzy E. Ramzy, a United Nations deputy special envoy to Syria, told reporters Thursday that airdrops would be authorized if the government did not meet the expectations of both the United Nations and the International Syria Support Group, a coalition of 20 countries working to end five years of civil war.
More than 280,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
Still, “deliveries of aid continue to be rejected, delayed or tampered with – leaving the most vulnerable communities still in need, ” Ashley Proud, Mercy Corps’ humanitarian director for Syria, said Wednesday.
The latest delivery was made by teams from the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent.
The plan considers the various modes of delivery that would be possible to the 19 besieged areas identified by the UN.
“These are war crimes”, said Mr Delattre, who holds the council presidency this month.
“The Assad regime has cynically allowed limited amounts of aid into Darayya and Muadhamiya but it has failed to deliver the widespread humanitarian access called for by the global community”, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement.
US -backed fighters pushed ahead in their offensive in northern Syria on Friday, getting closer to a stronghold of the Islamic State group, opposition activists said.
Some of the most dire conditions are in the community of al-Wae’r near the central Syrian city of Homs where 75,000 people are in “the worst nutritional situation of all the besieged areas”, said Egeland.
As ground delivery of food and humanitarian goods to areas of Syria under fire remain spotty and inconsistent, a call for air drops made by the World Food Program has been backed by the Obama administration.
“Land convoys are our preferred choice of delivery of aid”, said Dujarric, noting that “every time a humanitarian convoy moves, every time a humanitarian helicopter goes in the air or a plane goes in the air, it’s very, very risky”.
The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance has seized some 20 villages outside the town, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He underscored the complex humanitarian network and supply plans to besieged towns as well as accessible areas throughout the country where the United Nations has aided millions monthly.
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Over 250,000 people have died in the Syrian civil war.
