United Nations: Syria Grants Aid Agencies Access to Four Locations
Syrian authorities have agreed to give relief workers access to four key sites, the United Nations said on Tuesday following a meeting on scaling up humanitarian aid.
"We will have a presence in Homs, Idlib, Daraa and Deir Ezzor to start with," said John Ging, director of the coordination and response unit at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Ging said reconnaissance missions were deployed to the four areas on Sunday.
U.N. relief teams will then work alongside the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver aid and monitor the situation, Ging said.
The U.N. estimates that at least one million people are in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria after 15 months of violence.
Relief agencies are also attempting to help the more than 78,000 Syrians who are living as refugees in neighboring countries.
OCHA hosted a third so-called Humanitarian Forum on Syria in Geneva on Tuesday, along with the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the European Commission Humanitarian Office.
Ging said the Syrian government had agreed to a $180-million (145-million-euro) draft plan for delivering aid.
"After a long time of very intense negotiations we now have an agreement in writing with the Syrian government on the scale, scope and modality of humanitarian action in Syria," he said after the meeting.
"The proof of their good faith in terms of that agreement will be in the action of the coming days."
Source: Agence France Presse
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