Griffiths reminds the Security Council that its obligation to the Syrian people does not end here. The UN Relief Coordinator encourages the Security Council to consider the fact that more Syrians require immediate life-saving assistance. The country is dealing with an increase in violence, a worsening economic crisis, and a winter storm that left a “path of ruin.”
New York, 28 January 2022 (TDI): The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, stated that the Syrian people are still facing tremendous obstacles.
Early recovery programs, according to the head of humanitarian affairs, are meant to meet requirements that develop during the humanitarian phase of a catastrophe and can provide a road to self-sufficiency and the restoration of critical services.
In an official statement, he attracted attention to the hundreds of youngsters besieged in Al Hasakah, in Syria’s northwest, under a terrible prison siege. On January 25th, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that children had died in the Ghwayran detention camp in Al-Hasakah.
Those imprisoned at the detention center were compelled to fight ISIL-affiliated detainees as well as the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces (SDF).
The siege has ended, and the Kurds have retaken possession of the jail, as reported in the press. On the other hand, Griffiths warned ambassadors that it was imperative that all children be rescued, transported to safety, and supported.
Griffiths thinks that their suffering is comparable to that of the country. In Syria, girls and boys are shaking in chilly tents, while others are confined in displacement camps or detention facilities, and those who are fortunate enough to have homes are nonetheless impoverished and without access to school.
People are dissatisfied
As Martin Griffiths stated, “We failed the Syrian people, young and old.” He encouraged the United Nations to devise a new strategy.
Six people were killed when missiles fell on Afrin City on January 20, and another bombing in early January seriously destroyed the major water station in Idlib City, according to the Under-Secretary-General.
Thousands of tents in northwest camps were destroyed by exceptionally harsh winter storms last week, and displaced families were forced to burn waste to remain warm and risk asphyxiation from sub-zero temperatures.
As I’ve said before, we’re failing the Syrian people, young and old. Failure each year can’t be our strategy.
This year, we have to lighten the load on Syrian civilians.
I urge Member States to work with the UN and other key humanitarian agencies on a new approach.
My remarks:
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) January 27, 2022
Simply said, the quantity is insufficient
“The food help we deliver to millions of people each month is just not enough,” Griffiths said, citing rising food basket costs and dwindling international funding. Griffiths stated that the UN’s six-month strategy for humanitarian operations, emphasizing early recovery measures to feed the population as well as cross-border delivery of food to Syria’s northwest, needed to be supported. He stated that two of these surgeries have already been performed and that a third is scheduled to begin soon.
“From hell to war”
The Norwegian Refugee Council’s Secretary-General, Jan Egeland, stated that the situation in Daraa, Damascus, and Eastern Ghouta had “dramatically worsened.”
Egeland, who served as UN Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2003 to 2006, said the economic situation, compounded by the drought, is now so bad that people he encountered during a recent visit described their path as “from war to hell.”
Members of the Security Council must act immediately to overcome this “suffocating paralysis.” Members of the Security Council and other regional countries are asked to lend their assistance.
.@NRC_Egeland tells the UN Security Council today that Syrian civilians feel prisoners of a manmade, political stalemate that has crippled all hope among children and youth, as well as among the millions of refugees lingering in neighbouring nations. https://t.co/yQC3bbmcW8
— NRC (@NRC_Norway) January 27, 2022
Humanitarian Diplomacy
Jan Egeland encouraged the international community to lift access restrictions on all sides of the battle lines, emphasizing that administrative, logistical, legal, and physical barriers continue to obstruct humanitarian work. Humanitarian diplomacy must also be effective.
As an example, he stated that the Russian Federation may give legal support on behalf of the government to displaced people and return, while the Turkish and American governments could provide assistance to de facto authorities in opposition-controlled regions. Her family evacuated to eastern Ghouta with the infant, who is now being cared for by her family in Adra.
In addition, he called on international parties for help in settling problems in Idlib and elsewhere, stating that war cannot be fought in the middle of what is, in reality, a vast number of displacement camps.
Solidarity is required
Simultaneously, he emphasized that “the time is not right for closing borders” and that civilians must be able to seek refuge.
In addition to deconfliction, it will be critical to reestablish cross-border and cross-line relief, secure access to water and reach agreement on waterways from the north, support civilian infrastructure rehabilitation, allow for long-term solutions for refugees, and close the humanitarian funding gap.
He claimed that the year 2021 in Syria will be one of the worst ever for people. “We ask donor nations not to abandon us in 2022.”
