UNITED NATIONS, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations continues to step up its cross-border response efforts to address the needs of hundreds of thousands of newly displaced people in northwest Syria, said a UN spokesman on Tuesday.
In the first 16 days of March, over 650 trucks carrying food, shelter material, water, sanitation and hygiene and nutrition assistance have been sent into northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam border crossings from Turkey, as authorized by the Security Council, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Since Dec. 1, approximately 960,000 people have been newly displaced in Idlib and surrounding areas, mainly women and children, said Haq.
The mass displacement further increases needs across northwest Syria, where over 4 million people are living in severe conditions, he told a daily press briefing.
A detailed humanitarian readiness and response plan for northwest Syria has been in place since the end of January, covering both cross-border, and delivery from within Syria, with an updated funding requirement of 500 million U.S. dollars to assist over 1.1 million people in need.
More than 300 million dollars have been provided by donors toward this plan, but more is needed to fully address critical life-saving needs, said Haq.
