UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th May, 2019) The United Nations expressed its deep concern about the health and safety of more than 30,000 refugees in Syria's Rukban camp and reiterated the call for the delivery of a third humanitarian aid convoy, UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said in a press briefing on Thursday.
"The United Nations remains extremely concerned about the health and safety of over 30,000 people in Rukban, Syria, where the humanitarian situation is critical. The United Nations continues to call for a third humanitarian convoy to Rukban, bringing life-saving assistance, including food, hygiene kits, and nutrition supplies for children, as well as health items," Haq said.
Haq noted that the latest assistance to Rukab, which was estimated to last one month, had been delivered almost three months ago and the humanitarian situation in the camp is worsening.
He added that all parties involved in the conflict in Syria should provide safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to all individuals in need under international humanitarian law obligations.
Earlier in the month, the United Nations said that nearly 11,000 refugees had left the Rukban refugee camp, which represents more than 25 percent of the original 41,000 population of the settlement.
The Rukban camp lies in the US-controlled zone around its unauthorized military base in Syria's At-Tanf, making it hard for humanitarian workers to access. Moscow and Damascus have repeatedly tried to draw the attention of the international community to the appalling conditions in which Rukban residents live and to the United States' reluctance to let people leave the camp.
The World Health Organization (WHO) described in January people residing in the camp as "trapped," adding that they lived in "deplorable" conditions. Limited water supply, bitterly cold weather and poorly functioning health-care facilities contribute to the rise of diseases, which include influenza, measles and tuberculosis, the WHO stated.
