Hostilities, deepening health crisis worsen civilian situation in Syria: UN

Hostilities and a deepening economic, health and water crisis have worsened the situation for civilians in northwest Syria, UN humanitarians said.

Up to 4.1 million people -- 80 per cent of them women and children -- rely on aid to meet their most basic needs, Xinhua news agency quoted the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as saying.

Some 2.8 million people are internally displaced in the region, it added.

"Every month, we and our humanitarian partners reach 2.4 million people with life-saving aid crossing from Turkey to Northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing," the office said.

Airstrikes reportedly affected five camps for internally displaced people in northern Idlib near the Bab al-Hawa crossing on Tuesday, injuring a woman, a child and seven men, OCHA said.

Another airstrike struck within 500 meters of a secondary school and two health centres, damaging one of them, it said.

The UN Human Rights office reports that since the beginning of this year, at least 118 civilians have been killed in the region, including 49 children, and another 193 people injured.

The UN continues to call on all parties to implement their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.

--IANS

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