UN announces entry of aid convoy to Damascus countryside

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Tuesday that a convoy of humanitarian aid reached the Syrian town of Qudsayya located in the Damascus countryside on Monday evening.

Radio Sawa reported Jens Lark, OCHA’s media spokesman, as saying that “the convoy includes food and public health tools for approximately 30,000 people in the besieged city which is classified among areas that are difficult to access”.

The convoy is the second to enter Qudsayya this year, according to the organization.

He added that 900,000 civilians living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria have received life-saving assistance since relief operations began earlier this year.

Figures show that almost 57 per cent of civilians living in besieged areas have received aid, while 12 percent of those living in hard-to-reach areas have been reached.

A total of 16 out of the 18 besieged areas have received vital humanitarian supplies.

Lark pointed out that the United Nations constantly appeals to those concerned to grant permits to allow the unconditional and permanent entry of humanitarian aid to the nearly 5.5 million people registered as refugees across Syria.