Syria: "People's needs are as vast as they are critical" - ASG for Humanitarian Affairs

Remarks by Ms. Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on the situation in Syria.
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Summary:
UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Ursula Mueller said after almost eight years of conflict in Syria, “people's needs are as vast as they are critical.”
Addressing the Security Council today (30 Jan), Mueller said UN estimates that 13.1 million people are in need of protection and humanitarian assistance, including 6.1 million people who are displaced within the country. She added that another 5.5 million people have fled the conflict across borders into neighbouring countries.
The UN official expressed particular concern for the safety and protection of civilians caught up in the violence in north-west Syria, where hostilities have reportedly caused numerous deaths and injuries. Airstrikes and fighting in southern Idleb and northern Hama have resulted in over 270,000 displacements since 15 December, driving people from their homes to other areas of Idleb. She said, “During these cold and wet winter months, many families have nothing else than improvised tents which they share with others.” She added that attacks on medical facilities and vital infrastructure continued, “with reports of at least 16 attacks on health care facilities during the month of December alone.”
Mueller reported that the UN was carefully monitoring the situation of over 300,000 people living in Afrin, Aleppo which is witnessing fighting. She also expressed concern over the situation in Eastern Ghouta and areas of Damascus. Although 29 patients in urgent need of medical care were allowed out of Eastern Ghouta in late December, Mueller said “hundreds more, most of them women and children, require immediate medical attention; so far, there have been 21 civilian deaths among those waiting and needing medical evacuation; their needs are critical, and the law is clear.” She urged all parties, “and all those with influence over the parties, to see to it that all such medical evacuations take place without conditions and without delay.”
The Assistant-Secretary-General said last month none of the UN cross-line convoys were able to reach besieged locations, and only two convoys accessed hard-to-reach areas. She noted that this month, the United Nations and partners have had no access to any such locations at all. She said, “Not one convoy has been able to deploy; discussions about convoys have stalled over requirements to lower the number of beneficiaries, and splitting convoys in a way that would not allow us to provide food or other essential items. Our deliveries must continue to be based on humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law, impartially based on civilian need.”
Mueller said the UN would continue to deliver to millions of people in need “but requires efficient and effective mechanisms to ensure the safe and rapid delivery of aid.”