UN reiterates need for humanitarian access in Syria

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reiterated the need for full humanitarian access in the war-torn Syria.

"The UN is reverting to the government to request full access, in order to be able to send the full convoy with all the food that had been in the plan for June," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday at a daily news briefing here, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The convoys are very finely calibrated in terms of the kind of relief that was on them, and the second part of the convoy primarily consists of food," he said.

The written request submitted to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 5 included a plan for airlifts -- not airdrops -- as a last resort, to Daraya, Douma and Moadamiyeh in rural Damascus Governorate, and Al-Waer in Homs Governorate, he said.

"That request would only come into play if, for whatever reason, the UN could not get land access," the spokesman added.

At least 280,000 people have been reportedly killed and more than half of Syria's population have fled their homes since the political crisis and subsequent armed conflict broke out in March 2011.

--IANS

pgh/