There are now 592,000 people in Syria in besieged areas including Al-Wae’r with a population of 75,000 people which the United Nations had only recently added to its list, said Egeland.
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The UN Security Council is expected to discuss plans to begin air drops of humanitarian aid to areas under siege, following calls by the US, UK and France.
The UN’s humanitarian aid task force has a list of 19 locations in Syria it hopes to reach and says almost 600 thousand people are now stranded in besieged areas of the civil war-torn country.
The World Food Program (WFP), a United Nations agency, said it is seeking Syria’s approval for flights that would deliver supplies to 19 “besieged areas” of the war-torn country.
The International Syria Support Group, a coalition of world powers, had called for the World Food Program to unilaterally deliver food to besieged Syrians starting June 1 if access wasn’t granted by the Syrian government.
We reached many fewer places and many fewer people [in May] than we did in March and April, said Egeland, who is the Senior Advisor to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.
Humanitarian access in Syria has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed at least 280,000 people and displaced millions.
The scale of the needs in Syria is massive.
Matthew Rycroft, the UK’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the Syrian government has done “too little too late” regarding the humanitarian crisis in the country and the global community will no longer tolerate stalling tactics.
WFP says it is “activating” the air delivery plan following a request from the International Syria Support Group of mostly regional and world powers led by the USA and Russian Federation, but that it needs authorizations and funding first.
In Minbij, also in the north, a Kurdish offensive backed by the U.S. continued for a second day against Islamic State.
The calls came after a 1 June deadline for aid convoys to reach all areas besieged by the Syrian government passed – although land deliveries made it into Daraya for the first time since 2012 on Wednesday.
Either helicopters or planes would be used for the airdrops, although land access would be feasible in some areas if Syria approves, WFP said.
O’Brien said he’ll make a formal request to the Syrian government on June 5 for permission to undertake airdrops.
Francois Delattre, permanent representative of France to the UN and the current president of the UN Security Council, told reporters Friday that the council would ask Damascus to authorize humanitarian airdrops on localities where land access had earlier been denied.
Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says Syria has agreed to allow access for ground convoys to deliver aid to 12 besieged areas during the holy month of Ramadan later this month.
In northern Syria, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance advanced toward the town of Manbij held by the “Islamic State” (IS) jihadi group on Thursday.
In February, the WFP carried out a 21-pallet air drop of aid to a government-held area of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria.
However, he added this was “far from sufficient” to provide the kind of relief needed by Syrians in besieged areas.
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Since the war started in Syria in early 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests, more than 250,000 people have been killed, according to United Nations figures.
