UN plans $3.2bn to help 13.5 million Syrians

A senior UN official said on Monday that 3.2 billion U.S. dollars had been allocated to address the humanitarian needs of 13.5 million Syrians in 2016, according to media reports.

"The United Nations and our partners have just finalized the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2016: we need 3.2 billion dollars to help the 13.5 million Syrians who require some form of assistance," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O'Brien said in Damascus.

Speaking of the worsening humanitarian situation in Syria, O'Brien said some 6.5 million Syrians are internally displaced, of whom 72 percent have no access to drinking water and two million children are out of school.

About 4.5 million people continue to live in areas that are hard to reach for the humanitarian community, he said, adding that almost 400,000 of those are besieged.

"This situation is unacceptable," he said. "We need sustained humanitarian access to all people in need, with or without local agreements. Humanitarian access should not be conditional on the existence of such agreement."

"I continue to call on all parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights laws," he urged.

Nearly five years of conflict have left much of Syria infrastructure destroyed or severely damaged, and hundreds of thousands of people are now in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.

Sources: MENA