Turkey | Syria: Humanitarian Dashboard - Cross Border Response Jan - Dec 2016 (Issued on 30 Mar 2017) [EN/AR]

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Hostilities between non-state armed opposition groups (NSAOGs), the Government of Syria and the Islamic State continued across Syria, with the exception of a significant reduction in fighting across the months of Feb – April, 2016 due to the ‘Cessation of Hostilities’ agreement brokered by the ISSG and the Humanitarian Task Force. As of early July, eastern districts in the city of Aleppo became effectively besieged by government of Syria forces, where some 250,000 – 275,000 people were in need.

Between July and September, a number of political initiatives brokered by key parties to the conflict to deliver urgently needed humanitarian assistance and evacuate the sick and wounded were unsuccessful due to a number of violations and a lack of security guarantees by parties to the conflict. Eventually, as a result of the GoS military campaign on Aleppo city NSAGs accepted in December to evacuate Eastern Aleppo city where about 36,000 civilians evacuated into western Aleppo countryside and Idleb while about 100,000 people distributed into other areas within Aleppo city under GoS control. The Syrian Democratic Forces SDF supported by the US-led coalition initiated an offensive at end of May resulted by full control over Manbij town and surroundings by early August. The offensive caused a displacement of about 45,000 people from Menbij and nearby countryside mostly returned home after the offensive was over. On 10 December 2016 SDF initiated another offensive controlling some villages in north Ar-Raqqa countryside as the first phase of Raqqa isolation operation supported by the US-led coalition which resulted by a displacement of about 10,000 people towards Tell Abiad district, It is expected in the next months that SDF will make more advancements towards Ar-Raqqa city which puts more than 300,000 civilians at risk of displacement.Turkish backed non-state armed groups made steady gains, seizing territory from ISIL in a number of sub districts contiguous to the Turkish border between Azaz, Jarablus and Al Bab towns. As a result, a lot of communities have been displaced and subsequently returned to towns during and after battles have taken place. By December 2016 Turkish backed non-state armed groups initiated a big offensives around Al-Bab City which resulted in displacement of about 20,000 people from Al Bab district mainly towards Azaz, Jarablus and Menbij. Meanwhile, as a result of the military operations by the US and its Iraqi allies to take Mosul, by the end of December 216 up to 11,500 individuals from Iraq arrived to Al-Hassakeh province to camp in AlHole.

UN agencies and NGOs have been working to reach as many of those vulnerable communities as possible and at the same time prepared for a future influx of up to potentially 100,000 more people if Mosul should fall.

Under UNSC resolution 2165/2191/2258, UN and its partners sent 152 consignments from Turkey in 2016, 49 from Bab al-Salam (BAS) & 103 from Bab al-Hawa (BAH), to Syrian consisting of 5,309 truckloads. 91% of these trucks used BAH border crossing while the remaining crossed from BAS. During this period, both border crossings were interrupted in different period of time due to clashes close to borders and that caused delay on UN shipments, as well as commercial shipments. Shipped assistance included Health supplies for 4.7 million people (including vaccines and consumable medical supplies for health facilitates); food aid for over 1.2 million people (643,000 monthly average); NFI and Shelter items for 1.1 million people; and WASH supplies for about 0.7 million people; and Education materials for 216,000 people in 5 Governorates (Idleb, Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Lattakia). The highest number of beneficiaries reached are in Idleb and Aleppo. Kobane border crossing remained closed for humanitarian staff and shipments since early February 2016. During 2016, the Turkish Red Crescent facilitated the crossing of 10,252 truckloads of humanitarian supplies from 58 NGOs and over 469 Local NGOs/other actors including Turkish and Syrian NGOs with a total value of approximately (US$ 180 million) using five border crossings along the Turkish-Syrian border. According to the cluster response data (4Ws) of Jan - Dec 2016, a total of 160 sub-districts (969 unique reported communities by 6 clusters) have been reached from Turkey. Around 45 sub-districts have been consistently reached. Education cluster reached 0.4 million; FSL 2.4 million average monthly;
Health provided over 8.5 million consultations; NFI were provided to 2 million and shelter to 0.3 million; Nutrition helped 0.8 million; protection services were extended to 0.6 million; Child protection reached 0.14 million and WASH provided services to 5.3 million affected people.