UN seeks aid access as civilians risk starvation

The United Nations has called for greater humanitarian access in Syria amid fears that many civilians risk starvation in besieged areas of the war-torn country. Speaking in Geneva on Thursday, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said there “are plenty of civilians at the moment in danger of starvation” in Syria, where more than 400,000 […]

The United Nations has called for greater humanitarian access in Syria amid fears that many civilians risk starvation in besieged areas of the war-torn country.
Speaking in Geneva on Thursday, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said there “are plenty of civilians at the moment in danger of starvation” in Syria, where more than 400,000 are trapped in areas besieged by the government or armed groups across the country.
The UN also estimates that upwards of four million people are trapped in “hard-to-reach” areas.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and special advisor to the UN envoy, said plans to reach a million Syrians with humanitarian assistance have fallen short.
“Of the one million people that we have planned and have tried to reach by land in May, we’ve only so far reached 160,000,” he said.