Besieged Syrian town receives life-saving aid

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported Friday that a second aid convoy reached the besieged area of Al-Waer in Syria's Homs on Aug. 25, providing 40,000 people with food, health, nutrition and non-food items.

The delivery followed a first convoy that provided 35,000 people with assistance on Aug. 23, bringing the number of people who have received multi-sectoral aid to 75,000 civilians.

OCHA reported that this is the first time in August that a full inter-agency road convoy completed operations to a besieged location in Syria, a country ravaged by a deadly civil war since 2011.

"While we welcome yesterday's convoy, the level of access to besieged areas this month is wholly unacceptable," OCHA said in a written statement.

"Much more progress is required in reaching all besieged and hard-to-reach areas considering the very high level of needs," it added.

Latest UN figures revealed that since relief operations kicked off in February this year, 1,275,750 people have received multi-sectoral aid, far short of what the UN had hoped to achieve by now.

Ongoing fighting between factions loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and armed groups seeking to oust him has meant that humanitarian actors have been unable to fully assist those in need across the war-torn country.

Source : XINHUA