UN relief efforts stepped up in Syria for winter

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is delivering more aid across Syria in preparation for winter as the country is witnessing a 30-month conflict, a UN spokesperson said.

"Among other locations, last week, the Agency's local partners brought aid to the hard-to-reach city of Raqqa to more than 10,000 people," reported UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky here Tuesday during a daily briefing.

"So far in 2013, about 35 percent of UNHCR's core relief supplies has gone to people in hard-to-reach areas of Syria," he said. "On a weekly basis, up to 250 aid trucks are on the move inside Syria, bringing aid to some 14,000 to 15,000 households, equivalent to nearly 100,000 people weekly."

"Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) is saying that a possible polio outbreak is likely in Syria," he said.

The WHO is waiting for final laboratory confirmation but is treating the situation as a polio outbreak operationally.

"A plan is underway for an emergency response, which would start in the immediately affected area of the Deir es Zour Province," he said.

More than 100,000 people have been reportedly killed since a political crisis broke out in Syria in March 2011. Over two million people have fled the war-torn country and 4.5 million have been internally displaced.