Syria - IOM, in partnership with the Al-Oun Association, a local NGO, and the office of the Homs Governor, this week delivered essential non-food relief items to some 7,500 vulnerable people in Al-Waer, a besieged area on the outskirts of Homs city.

The area has not received humanitarian aid since October 2013 and the aid, which represented another breakthrough in delivering relief to hard-to-reach and cross-line areas, included 1,500 hygiene kits and 1,000 baby and adult diapers.

In late July and early August, IOM reached another 12,000 people in Karak, Mataeiyeh, Jizeh, Mlihet Elatash, Ghasm, Mseifra, Kahil, Sayda, Easter Ghariyeh and Tiba in Daraa governorate and in Deir-ez-Zor. The aid included some 2,130 emergency shelter kits, including plastic sheet, wooden boards and basic tools.

The UN estimates that there are now some 10.8 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Syria, including around 6.4 million who are internally displaced, about half of whom are children. Some 4.6 million people are living in hard-to-access areas, while some 240,000 continue to live under siege.

Since January 2014, IOM has reached over a million internally displaced Syrians with essential non-food relief items.  Over 43 per cent of IOM deliveries were in cross-line and hard to reach areas through IOM programming and participation to UN-organized inter-agency convoys.

IOM Syria works closely with local authorities and local NGO partners on the ground to deliver humanitarian aid. “Despite our improved access in some areas, we have yet to reach many more people in dire need. While conditions in some areas are improving, in others they are deteriorating, and we are still desperately short of funding,” says IOM Syria Chief of Mission Maria Rumman.

IOM Syria has currently only received 11 per cent of the funding it appealed for under the 2014 Syria Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (SHARP). It appealed for some USD 68 million and has received USD 7.8 million.

For more information, please contact

Maria Rumman
IOM Damascus
Email: mrumman@iom.int