UN official urges rapid scale-up of Syria aid, announces $8 million CERF allocation

A United Nations official told the council that the humanitarian crisis in Syria remains severe and announced an additional $8,000,000 from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support a rapid scale-up of relief operations in the country.

The official outlined three immediate priorities: preserving and rebuilding essential services, protecting civilians and displaced people, and ensuring women and girls are not marginalized in recovery efforts. The speaker said the UN response is “only a third funded” and urged the international community to coordinate funding and logistics to reach people across Syria.

The official said nearly 15,000,000 people require humanitarian health support, about 13,000,000 face acute food insecurity, and disruptions to water and electricity — including fighting around the Tishrin Dam in eastern Aleppo — are affecting hundreds of thousands of people. The World Food Programme has reduced assistance by about 80% over the past two years because of funding shortfalls, the official said. In December, the United Nations and partners moved 298 aid trucks through crossings at Taqiyah; WHO supported an EU humanitarian air bridge that delivered about 50 tons of supplies to northern Syria.

On protection, the speaker said more than 620,000 people who were uprooted in November and December remain displaced as winter conditions arrive, adding to some 7,000,000 people previously displaced inside Syria. The official said roughly 2,000,000 people in the northwest remain in camps and informal sites and that partners have identified more than 100 contaminated locations since late November across Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Latakia. The official described meeting civilians in Tajmah Alish camp and seeing children injured by unexploded ordnance in Aleppo.

The official highlighted the risk that women and girls will be further marginalized and recounted individual cases met on the visit, saying their participation will be critical to Syria’s future. The speaker also described ongoing operational work: a cholera vaccination campaign under way in a northeastern camp, UNICEF-supported water rehabilitation around the Tishrin area, WFP bread distributions reaching more than 2.5 million people, and plans to roll out a countrywide rapid needs assessment this month.

The official asked the council for three things: clear assurances from the caretaker authorities that international humanitarian law will be respected and humanitarian organizations allowed to operate; substantially more funding for both immediate relief and longer-term recovery; and measures to ensure sanctions do not impede humanitarian support. The speaker welcomed a United States announcement of a new general license covering transactions with Syrian governing institutions as “a welcome signal.”

On access, the official said operations through border crossings with neighboring countries continue but that cross-line movement inside Syria remains challenging. The United Nations is working with the caretaker authorities on registration procedures for NGOs and on clarifying movement procedures at crossings, including at the Jaban Asib crossing with Jordan, and testing deliveries through Iraq to complement NGO routes.

The official concluded by urging the council and international community to act with “urgency and vigor” and said the UN would prioritize the announced CERF allocation to expand humanitarian operations across Syria. The statement did not propose a council vote; it reported the CERF allocation and operational updates announced by the UN official.

"We must stand with the people of Syria at this time," the UN official said.