Attachments
As delivered
Thank you very much, Madam President.
I am afraid you hear from me very similar tones and words that you just heard from Geir about the extraordinarily gloomy and dire situation faced by the people of Syria. I am grateful to Geir for his exposition.
Many records, Madam President, were broken in 2022. All of these were overwhelmingly negative.
Hostilities, for example, continued to take a substantial toll despite, as Geir said, a widespread acknowledgement that the military phase and military objectives are out of line. And, these took a substantial toll, especially along the front lines. In north-west Syria alone, at least 138 civilians were killed and 249 injured.
The number of people who need humanitarian aid climbed to 14.6 million people—that’s an increase of over 1.2 million people compared 2021. And, this number will go up in 2023, once again, to reach 15.3 million people, that new awful record.
We haven’t seen these kinds of numbers, this kind of death rate, this kind of damage, this kind of need, since the beginning of the crisis.
More than 12 million people—that’s more than half of the population of Syria—are struggling to put food on the table. Geir spoke movingly, I thought, of the economic situation faced by the people of Syria. Nearly three million people—nearly three million more than the 12 [million]—could slide into food insecurity.
Socio-economic conditions continued to deteriorate. Spiraling domestic inflation, most evident in the continued devaluation of the local currency, coupled with those rising global food and fuel prices, that we know so well, are putting basic food items and other essentials out of the reach of millions of families. Prices for essential food commodities, the core needs of a family, have surged by more than 90 per cent during this year—an increase of 90 of per cent of the basic food basket for a family in Syria.
So, of course, it is no surprise that the vast majority of families in Syria are unable to meet their own basic needs. Families headed by women most acutely feel the impact of these alarming trends.
This is the worst since the beginning of the crisis.
And, I don’t think 2023 is going to bring much relief to the people of Syria.
Madam President,
Despite funding challenges and a complex operational environment—perhaps the most complex operational environment in all the world’s humanitarian response programs today—our humanitarian partners are delivering life-saving assistance to 7.8 million people each month this year, that’s including 2.7 million from the cross-border operations to which Geir referred.
Madam President,
2022 was also notable for the year of cholera, making its resurgence for the first time in Syria in 15 years, as indeed it is in many places around the world, profiting as it does from a health system under strain.
Outbreaks of cholera usually occur in communities struggling to access safe water, where sanitation and public health infrastructure has been damaged due to conflict or natural disasters. We have both of that in Syria.
Some 62,000 suspected cholera cases have been reported as of the 18th of December. One hundred people have sadly died.
Humanitarian partners scaled up surveillance and testing capacities, monitoring water quality, training healthcare workers, and promoting awareness.
And, we urgently need additional funding to continue to respond to this particular outbreak.
Madam President,
Millions of people in Syria are, as we speak, as we sit here, spending their twelfth consecutive winter in displacement. And, for the two million people living in tents, camps and makeshift shelters, winter is a cruel month, indeed—sub-zero temperatures, strong winds, sudden squalls, snowstorms and flooding which take away their shelter.
Some six million people—that’s an increase of a third year-by-year—need urgent assistance this winter. The winterization response—this is the response that agencies deliver to respond to the special needs of winter—this response led by our colleagues at UNHCR is 21 per cent funded.
This means that more than two-thirds of people who need help from those scourges to which I referred will not receive it. Families will not have fuel, heaters, blankets, winter clothes and other items they need simply to ward off the cold and to protect their children from its terrible, terrible grip. And once again, it will be families headed by women which will be most gravely impacted.
I go on.
The general funding outlook for Syria is generally discouraging too. We’re not far away from the end of 2022, and the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan for the country is 43 per cent funded. I am sure that’s where we’ll end the year, under half funded.
The low level of funding this late in the year is in fact unprecedented. We know the many reasons which have contributed to this. But let us, please, try not to let this become another disappointing record next year.
Madam President,
Women and girls are bearing the brunt of the continuing crisis. Gender-based violence, a rampage indeed in Syria, be it through physical, sexual, psychological or indeed economic abuse.
Some 7.3 million people in Syria, the overwhelming majority of whom are women and girls, need support to confront and overcome gender-based violence. Some 7.3 million people need support, a third of the total population. We must ensure that they receive this support. We must give them our help and a steady shoulder.
Madam President,
In less than three weeks, Resolution 2642 (2022) of this Council, which allows us to deliver cross-border humanitarian assistance to north-west Syria, and to which Geir also referred, is due to expire. Of course, I ask for the support of this Council to allow us to deliver assistance, to do our job, to do what generous Member States require us to do, to deliver that assistance to all those who need it, no matter where they are.
I can’t stress enough the importance of maintaining this lifeline for millions of people in the north-west, the north-west in particular, not to exclude the north-east but to focus on the north-west. And, not renewing the resolution jeopardizes the delivery of aid when people need it the most, and this amidst a cholera outbreak and in the middle of that winter.
I want to give you a couple statistics on early recovery. Since January of this year, at least, 125 humanitarian agencies have been implementing 374 projects throughout Syria, in all the governorates of Syria, in early recovery. These projects have received a record—and this is a piece of good news—US$517 million. Some 274 out of the 374 are funded under the Humanitarian Response Plan, and they have received a little less than the figure I have just given you. So, early recovery, as required in that resolution, has also built up.
But, we need the continued facilitation and support of all parties in the region and in this Council to improve our cross-line access. In the north-west, the ninth cross-line mission to Sarmada, in Idleb Governorate, was completed at the beginning of this month. So, our record this year is better. The inter-agency convoy delivered food, medicines, sanitation and hygiene items, reproductive health kits.
We need to see more of these convoys, of course we do. They cannot, however, compensate—and, I must repeat as I always do—for the massive scale of delivery of the cross-border operation. On average, nearly 600 trucks delivered food and other essential aid across the border to north-west Syria every month this year. 600 every month.
Cross-line is an essential complement. It is essential to build it up. Early recovery is essential, simply for the self-respect and future prospects of the people of Syria. Crossborder cannot be substituted.
Madam President,
I am sorry to be so gloomy, but I join Geir in his priorities—humanitarian framework but all those other efforts that he and his office lead to try to bring an end to this tragedy for the people of Syria.
Thank you.
Disclaimer
- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.