As Syrians deal with critical aid cuts, OCHA appeals to the Security Council for funding
UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Mr. Ramesh Rajasingham, Director of OCHA's Humanitarian Sector Division, on behalf of Mr. Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator - Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria
22 October 2025
As delivered
Thank you, Mr. President.
As Deputy Special Envoy [Najat] Rochdi has described, Syria continues to navigate a challenging but crucial opportunity to build a better future.
These efforts come amid what remains one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, affecting more than 70 per cent of the population.
Syria's humanitarian crisis is longstanding, but it is not static. Developments on the ground continue to add to or exacerbate people's needs.
Clashes in parts of Aleppo earlier this month caused civilian casualties and temporarily displaced some families.
While the ceasefire in As-Sweida has largely held, the fragile and unpredictable security environment continues to affect the movement of people and goods. This has led to shortages and high prices for critical items like fuel and bread; hampered the restoration of critical services including healthcare and water; and prevented displaced people from returning to their homes.
Explosive ordnance continues to take a deadly toll. Last week alone, 16 incidents were recorded across the country, killing three people and injuring 19 others, including six children. Since December, more than 550 people have been killed in such incidents, and over 800 more injured, nearly a third of them children.
Amid the historic drought conditions, wildfires in Lattakia, Tartous and Homs governorates affected over 5,000 people during the past month, displacing dozens of families, damaging agricultural land and disrupting essential services.
All this comes on top of the longstanding needs in the country.
Some 7 million people remain internally displaced, including 1.3 million who are living in camps or similar sites and who are particularly vulnerable to the onset of winter.
An estimated 2.4 million children remain out of school, with 1 million more at risk of dropping out. One in three schools are unusable because they have been damaged or are sheltering displaced people.
Mr. President,
The UN and our partners continue to do what we can to provide assistance as efficiently as possible with the available resources and in line with the broader Humanitarian Reset.
Despite reduced funding, we are reaching 3.4 million people on average each month across Syria - 25 per cent more than the same period last year - capitalizing on better access.
In As-Sweida Governorate and neighbouring areas, dozens of humanitarian convoys - organized with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent - have been organized, allowing us to deliver blankets, mattresses, medical and health supplies, education materials, food and fuel to an average of 424,000 people per month since July.
WFP has delivered hundreds of tons of wheat flour to bakeries in As-Sweida, Dar'a, and Rural Damascus, in addition to their ongoing programme supporting subsidized bread for 2 million people each month across the country.
In response to the recent wildfires, OCHA led interagency assessments to affected areas, helping to mobilize food, water, fuel, health services and household items, alongside assistance provided by SARC, and the efforts led by the Ministry of Emergencies and Disaster Management to contain the fires.
UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Education to support a "Back-to-Learning" campaign to reach displaced and other at-risk children, rebuild schools, and expand access in remote areas.
Mr. President,
In this challenging funding environment, the OCHA-managed Syria Humanitarian Fund and Syria Cross-Border Humanitarian Fund - which are now merging as part of our operational transition - have become even more critical.
With allocations totaling $84 million so far this year, the funds are supporting a range of critical services across the country. This includes providing water, sanitation and other services in Al-Hol and other camps in north-east Syria; clearing explosive ordnance in the Aleppo countryside; and supporting solar-power water supply.
About 63 per cent of the current allocation is going - directly or indirectly - to national partners.
My sincere thanks go to the Member States supporting these funds, including the Netherlands, Canada and the UK as the biggest contributors to these funds this year - as well as others around the table today.
We also continue to make full use of deliveries from Türkiye, with the consent of Syrian authorities. This year, over 300 trucks per month have used this route to get assistance to locations across the country.
We also continue to work with the authorities and other partners to better tailor our assistance to the current needs. WFP recently launched the annual Food Security Assessment in collaboration with Syria's Planning and Statistics Commission.
Mr. President,
We can do more to help the people of Syria if these three conditions are met:
Firstly, de-escalating ongoing flashpoints and preventing new ones.
As I mentioned, outbreaks of violence continue to result in lost lives, new displacement and increased humanitarian needs.
Insecurity also makes our work harder. Clashes in Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor disrupted several roads, including the main highway between Aleppo and Ar-Raqqa. In As-Sweida, the fragile security environment continues to complicate movements and limit commercial supply chains, preventing the restoration of services.
Preventing violence is also critical for recovery efforts to take hold. Without it, over-reliance on emergency assistance will remain unavoidable, but it is not the solution the people of Syria need or want.
Secondly, we need more funding for critical humanitarian aid.
Our response plan for Syria remains only 19 per cent funded, one of the lowest levels among our biggest appeals.
This month, water trucking services for internally displaced people in parts of Ar-Raqqa were suspended, and trucking in Al-Hasakeh will be curtailed next month without more resources.
WFP warns that without additional funding they will have to scale back their assistance by January.
Over 340 health facilities have suspended services, reducing access to healthcare and medicine for more than 7 million people.
Funding cuts have closed at least 45 service points for survivors of gender-based violence this year. This comes as a new report from UNFPA highlights that - despite a surge in hope around
the transition in Syria - many women and girls continue to report widespread insecurity and gender-based violence.
Thirdly, we need tangible investments in development and reconstruction projects as soon as possible.
The reduction in conflict, steps to ease or remove sanctions, and substantial interest in private investment - particularly from the region - have created real opportunities. But we need concrete steps to mobilize resources, and to do so quickly.
Over 1 million refugees have now returned to Syria since December, a profoundly hopeful milestone. But many of them - along with 1.9 million internally displaced people who have also returned - need more investment in basic services, shelter and reconstruction to ensure these returns are sustainable.
Last month in New York, Syria was a focus of a number of engagements around the General Assembly High-Level Week. OCHA and other UN humanitarian partners had a valuable discussion with Foreign Minister Al-Shaibani and the Permanent Representative of Syria on scaling up humanitarian support and improving the conditions for more returns and rebuilding.
Syria has a viable path forward towards Syrian-led recovery, supported by development partners, and away from reliance on a massive emergency humanitarian operation.
We should push ourselves to move quickly along this path.
But we should also be under no illusion that getting there will require decisive and sustained action from the international community, including maintaining the flow of critical humanitarian aid as these efforts advance.
Thank you, Mr. President
Posted on 22 October 2025
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