Readout of Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Meeting with NGOs for the Northwest Syria Response
The below is attributable to U.S. Mission to the United Nations Spokesperson Olivia Dalton:
Today on the Turkey-Syria border, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield met with non-governmental organizations working directly to meet the dire needs of millions of Syrians.
NGO leaders briefed Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield on the growing humanitarian crisis inside Syria. They shared that 3.1 million Syrians living in northwest Syria are reliant on food aid to survive. If Bab al-Hawa, the last remaining UN-facilitated border crossing for humanitarian aid, is not renewed by the UN Security Council before July 10, NGOs estimate they can feed less than 10 percent of those in need. The leaders underscored that there is simply no way to replicate the scope and scale of the UN’s cross border operation.
The NGO leaders added that the situation facing women and children is particularly dire. Of the 1.7 million children in Northwest Syria, they briefed that an estimated one million are out of school 81 percent of girls are aware that they may be required to marry at a young age to survive, and four out of five boys are participating in the informal labor market. Women are enduring sexual assault and violence in order to feed their families.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield conveyed that the United States will do everything possible to ensure the UN’s mandate to deliver cross-border humanitarian aid can continue and is expanded to meet the rising needs on the ground. As the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Syria – having recently announced more than $800 million for humanitarian aid in Syria – the United States will maintain it its steadfast commitment to the Syrian people, to providing humanitarian aid to those in dire need, and to supporting peace and stability across the region.
Original source can be found here.
