As crisis deepens, UN warns four million Syrians may need humanitarian aid

November 10, 2012: With no end in sight for the conflict in Syria, United Nations officials on Friday warned that over four million people may be in need of humanitarian relief by the start of next year and appealed for urgent funds for aid operations, particularly as temperatures begin to drop in the region.

“It is predictable and it is inevitable that more and more people will be killed, injured and displaced the longer this conflict goes on,” the Director of Operations of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), John Ging, told reporters in Geneva following the conclusion of the Syria Humanitarian Forum.

“Every day more and more people are killed, more and more people are injured, more and more people are internally displaced, more and more people have their lives and their livelihoods destroyed,” Mr. Ging added.

Some 400 participants from UN Member States, regional organizations, international non-governmental organizations and the world body’s humanitarian agencies took part in today’s Forum, the sixth such meeting since the start of the crisis in Syria.

The conflict in the Middle Eastern country, which began 20 months ago as an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, has led to the deaths of at least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, forced over 400,000 people to neighbouring countries, and left more than 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.

“We’re projecting that the numbers of refugees will rise by the early New Year to over 700,000, on the current trends,” he added. “We are predicting that the numbers in need will exceed four million, up from 2.5 million.”

To address these needs, Mr. Ging stressed the need for greater resources for humanitarian operations, noting that current funding levels are “falling way short.” The $358 million appeal for humanitarian operations inside Syria is only 45 per cent funded, while the $485 million appeal for the refugee response is only at 35 per cent.