UN seeks full access to Syria's Rukban to aid evacuation

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The United Nations said on Monday that it wants to do more to help the people of Rukban in southeast Syria, those who fled and those who are still there, if granted full access.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, expressed the organization's willingness to engage more directly if granted full access.

The UN is providing limited support to the evacuees through the Red Crescent, including food, nutrition, water, hygiene kits and medical services. The United Nations has not been granted access to the shelters, he told a regular briefing.

On Sunday, 1,433 people left Rukban, said Dujarric, adding that more than half of them were children.

"This is the fifth group of people who've left Rukban in the past three weeks," he said. "To date, more than 3,600 people have exited Rukban camp for shelters in and around Homs city. Nearly 1,200 have left shelters to stay with relatives."

Aiding in the exodus from Rukban is in line with the results of a survey carried out by the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent in February, in which 95 percent of the people surveyed expressed a desire to leave, he said. At the same time, those polled expressed significant protection concerns.

"Our humanitarian colleagues add that over the past four days, 10 people have been killed and 20 people have been injured, in hostilities and explosions in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama Governorates in the northwest part of the country," the spokesman said.

"We call again on all parties to the conflict to cease all violence and remind them of their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law," he said.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency