News Digest

Aid groups say UN Security Council failed Syria, 2014 worst year yet

Aid agencies said on Thursday that 2014 was the worst year of the Syrian conflict so far and that three United Nations Security Council resolutions aimed at alleviating the suffering had failed. Syria’s crisis started in March 2011 with protests against the government and descended into a civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people. The UN resolutions passed last year demanded an end to arbitrary killing and torture, and the removal of barriers to aid access imposed by the Syrian government and insurgents.

There have been more killings, more bombings, a massive increase in displacement and a huge increase in the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Daniel Gorevan, a Syria policy advisor at British charity Oxfam.

In 2014, the United Nations said the Syrian government had approved less than half of its convoys to besieged or “hard-to-reach” areas of Syria. The UN is also not working in large areas of Syria run by the hardline Islamic State group. The report also said humanitarian funding had decreased. In 2013, 71 percent of the funds needed to support civilians inside Syria and refugees in neighbouring countries were provided. In 2014, this had declined to 57 percent. A resolution adopted in July authorised the UN to undertake cross-border aid operations without consent from Damascus, but the report said these had been hampered by restrictions from neighbouring countries, which include Turkey and Jordan.