Today's top news: Syria Conference, Ukraine

Children in Al-Hamza Shelter Center in the quake-affected city of Jandairis

April 2023: Snapshots of life in Jandairis during Eid al-Fitr, nearly three months since the first earthquakes struck on 6 February. The Al-Hamza Shelter Center in the city of Jandairis is home to about 300 families. OCHA/Bilal Al-Hammoud

Syria Conference

In Brussels today, the seventh conference on “Supporting the future of Syria and the region,” organized by the European Union, was held today at the ministerial level.

Speaking at the event, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, said that the people of Syria are facing their highest levels of humanitarian need in the history of the grueling 12-year conflict.

Stressing that the scale of needs is unprecedented, Ms. Msuya said the $11 billion humanitarian appeal for 2023 is just one-fifth funded.

She said support is desperately needed to provide lifesaving assistance and to scale up early recovery programming.

At the event, participants pledged 5.6b Euros in grants for 2023 and beyond.

Ukraine

OCHA continues to support the response to the Kakhovka Dam destruction. There were two inter-agency convoys today that traveled to affected areas, in addition to the ongoing assistance provided by the UN and its partners.

In the Kherson region, OCHA was today in Kalynivske, which is home to nearly 1,700 people who were already facing serious humanitarian needs due to the war. This community used to have a population of 3,400 people before February 2022.

OCHA and its partners delivered water, hygiene kits, bedding and shelter material, as well as food for all people in the town for a month. Enough medicine and medical supplies to treat the entire population for three months was also delivered.

In the Dnipro Region, they delivered eight truckloads of critical humanitarian assistance for at least 4,000 people in two communities in the south, where 40,000 people – many of them elderly – have extremely limited access to water because of the destruction of the Dam.

OCHA and its partners have also provided emergency services, including first aid and counselling, shelter materials and dignity kits, to people affected by the attack yesterday in Odesa and the day before in Kryvyi Rih.

While humanitarians in Ukraine are working tirelessly to provide people with the emergency aid they desperately need, OCHA calls on the international community to enable this vital operation to continue.

So far this year, aid organizations in the country have received only 26 per cent of the $3.9 billion needed for the humanitarian response – with a worsening situation we need more funding to be able to respond to the needs.