Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Martin Griffiths, Briefing to the Security Council on the Humanitarian Situation in Syria, New York, 20 May 2022”:

• Close to US$ 6.7 billion have been pledged for 2022 and beyond during the Sixth Brussels Conference “Supporting the future of Syria and the region”.
• Hostilities, including airstrikes and shelling in north-west Syria, continue to affect civilians, including women and children. Constant care must be taken to spare them.
• The insecurity continues in Al Hol camp. So far in 2022, 13 murders and four attempted murders have been reported in that camp. The situation in Al Hol is a disgrace for the 56,000 civilians living there, the vast majority of whom are women and children. In fact, nearly 10,000 children and their mothers in the north-east are detained in prisons and prison-like camps.
• Fast approaching summer and its scorching heat in most parts of Syria. This will lead to increasing demand for water. Already, water levels in the Euphrates River are dropping to a critically low point. Nearly 5.5 million people in Syria rely on the Euphrates and its subsidiaries for drinking water.

World Health Assembly adopts a Resolution in favor of the occupied Syrian Golan and the occupied Palestinian territories: World Health Assembly stressed the importance of ensuring the availability of psychological, physical and environmental health services and availability of COVID-19 vaccines in an equitable, safe and non-discriminatory manner to the people of the occupied Syrian Golan and to the Palestinians in the occupied territories in accordance with the provisions of international law. This came during the Assembly’s adoption at its seventy-fifth session today of a resolution in favor of the occupied Syrian Golan and the occupied Palestinian territories, entitled “Health Conditions in the Occupied Syrian Golan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” by a majority of 77 member states against 14 opposition.

Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Ministry: The so called “safe zone” northern Syria mounts to be a war crime and a crime against humanity. The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) urged Member States of the international anti-ISIS coalition to intervene to prevent Turkey’s planned offensive on regions in northeastern Syria.

On 6 May WHO Syria in partnership with the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and UNDP hosted the virtual side event on Health and the Impact of the Socio-economic Crisis in Syria, followed by the Brussels Conference on Syria on 10 May where donors pledged $6.7 bln ($4.3 bln for 2022 and $2.4bln “for 2023 and beyond”), while international financial institutions also pledged $1.8 bln in loans.

Source: World Health Organization