Highlights
The overall humanitarian situation inside Syria continues to deteriorate. Ongoing military operations are hampering the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance to areas in Aleppo, Rural Damascus, Rural Homs, Idleb, Hama, Raqqa and Deir-ez-Zor. UNICEF and partners are scaling-up the provision of essential services and supplies to affected communities and displaced populations, particularly the most vulnerable.
In November, UNICEF reached about 106,600 people in 151 hard-to-reach locations with life-saving interventions and critical services, and delivered supplies for about 214,300 beneficiaries in 13 besieged areas inside Syria.
Recent advances by government forces in besieged East Aleppo have resulted in further displacement of residents. UNICEF and other UN agencies are responding with rapid assessments, distribution of nutrition supplies, winter clothes and blankets, immunization, as well as malnutrition screening and treatment.
More than 9,000 Iraqi refugees fleeing from ongoing hostilities in Mosul and internally displaced Syrians have taken shelter in Al Hol camp in Hassakeh. UNICEF is providing children and their families with life-saving water, non-food items and immunization services.
Across the Syria crisis countries in 2016, UNICEF and partners have reached over 21 million children under the age of 5 with polio vaccinations. UNICEF also supported 894,767 children to access formal education in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt. In Syria, about 3 million children (5-17 years) were supported in formal education through distribution of supplies/textbooks.
Since the beginning of the year, over 907,000 children and adults benefited from UNICEF structured and sustained child protection and psychosocial support programmes across Syria and countries hosting Syrian refugees in the region.
UNICEF and partners have started the distribution of essential clothing and winter supplies to protect children inside Syria and those who have taken refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan Iraq and Egypt from the piercing winter cold. US$38 million of funding is still urgently needed (US$82.4 million appeal) to reach the target beneficiaries.
