“The situation is getting worse every day and the widespread violence is having a devastating impact on the lives of ordinary Syrian women, men and children,” warned the humanitarian chief.

UN agencies and humanitarian partners have started stepping up assistance across the conflict lines. The World Food Programme began scaling up its food distribution to reach 1.75 million people this month, about half of them in opposition-controlled or contested areas. Working with more local partners, it aims to reach about 2.5 million people by April. UNICEF and the World Health Organization with their partners have vaccinated more than a million children against polio and measles, many in areas held by opposition groups. UNHCR distributed blankets, mattresses and household goods to over 400,000 people last year. About 40,000 children in conflict areas now have access to education and psycho-social support to cope with the crisis.

The Syrian Government recently authorized three additional international NGOs – Merlin, Mercy Corps and the Norwegian Refugee Council – to work in Syria but this brings the total to just eleven, said Ms. Amos. “We are crossing conflict lines, negotiating with armed groups on the ground, to reach more people in need but we are not reaching enough of those who require our help. Limited access in the north is a major problem that we can only solve using alternative methods of aid delivery.”

Last Saturday (16 Feb), a UN inter-agency mission delivered the first batch of critical, life-saving relief supplies including food, clothes, mattresses and blankets to about 6,000 internally displaced people in Syria’s north-western province of Idleb, where nearly 50,000 people are said to be living in makeshift shelters exposed to harsh winter conditions.

“The joint relief convoy, including eight UN agencies, shows that outreach is possible from inside Syria,” said Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Radhouane Nouicer. “It encourages us to continue to increase our efforts to reach more people in need across the country.” More inter-agency missions and aid convoys are expected to arrive in the area shortly to assist some 25,000 people.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 30,000 people fled their homes over the weekend, coinciding with the declaration of a state of emergency by the Government and the beginning of a French air operation in support of the Malian army, bringing the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to over 200,000.

“The degradation of the sanitation, shelter, health and food security conditions which has been observed over the last nine months in the North is likely to be aggravated as the number of IDPs increases,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

Northern Mali was occupied by radical Islamists after fighting broke out in January 2012 between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, after which the country underwent a military coup d’état, in March.

The renewed fighting comes at a time when OCHA estimates that 4.2 million Malians will need humanitarian assistance this year. These include some 2 million food insecure people and hundreds of thousands of malnourished children.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stressed that it is becoming increasingly difficult to access areas in the North as fighting continues. In Bamako, the capital, many families are struggling to make ends meet as the security situation deteriorates.

“Many families live in small rooms in bad conditions with no electricity or direct access to water. They generally lack space to accommodate all family members. The needs for money, food and shelter are huge,” said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards, adding that the agency is in the process of working with partners on income-generating activities to ameliorate the situation.

UNCHR is also assisting Malians who have left their country for neighbouring Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania by providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene structures, healthcare and education.

“Refugees are telling us they fled the ongoing military intervention, the absence of subsistence opportunities and basic services, and the imposition of Sharia Law,” Mr. Edwards said. He added that UNHCR remains short of funds for the Mali crisis with only $77.4 million received of the $123 million sought to help refugees and IDPs in 2012. For 2013, the agency anticipates needs at a further $195.6 million.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that chronic problems of food insecurity and malnutrition in the country will only be worsened by the conflict. The agency has so far managed to move emergency food to 270,000 conflict-affected people in the North, including 70,000 IDPs. However, it states that persistent insecurity is severely limiting its work.

WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs added that the agency would continue to monitor the situation and work closely with its partners to reach more than 400,000 crisis-affected people in the cities of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, which have been some of the most affected areas.

As the number of displaced people increased, there is also a growing concern for children as they are at high risk of being separated from their families and are more vulnerable to many forms of abuse, including military recruitment and sexual violence, noted the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“A major concern is of children being used in the fighting,” said UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado. “Children were often used in the first wave of fighting, which significantly raised the risk of injury and death.”

In addition to humanitarian concerns, there is also a need to protect the country’s cultural sites, which have previously been attacked during the fighting. The Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, today launched an appeal to all military forces in Mali “to make every effort to protect the cultural heritage of the country, which has already been severely damaged.”

In anticipation of military operations, Ms. Bokova mobilized the agency’s Emergency Fund to protect the four sites in Mali that are inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Efforts include developing preventive measures and the training of armed forces on the prevention of illicit trafficking.

UNESCO has already provided the topographic features relative to the location of sites to the concerned military staff, as well as information for soldiers to prevent damage to cultural heritage. The information has been shared with police and aid workers.

“Mali’s cultural heritage is a jewel whose protection is important for the whole of humanity. This is our common heritage, nothing can justify damaging it. It carries the identity and values of a people,” Ms. Bokova said.

“The destruction of World Heritage sites in Mali in 2012, especially the mausoleums in Timbuktu, sparked a wave of indignation across the world, helping to raise awareness of the critical situation facing the Malian people. The current military intervention must protect people and secure the cultural heritage of Mali,” she added.

“It is predictable and it is inevitable that more and more people will be killed, injured and displaced the longer this conflict goes on,” the Director of Operations of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), John Ging, told reporters in Geneva following the conclusion of the Syria Humanitarian Forum.

Some 400 participants from UN Member States, regional organizations, international non-governmental organizations and the world body’s humanitarian agencies took part in today’s Forum, the sixth such meeting since the start of the crisis in Syria.

The conflict in the Middle Eastern country, which began 20 months ago as an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, has led to the deaths of at least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, forced over 400,000 people to neighbouring countries, and left more than 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.

“We’re projecting that the numbers of refugees will rise by the early New Year to over 700,000, on the current trends,” he added. “We are predicting that the numbers in need will exceed four million, up from 2.5 million.”

To address these needs, Mr. Ging stressed the need for greater resources for humanitarian operations, noting that current funding levels are “falling way short.” The $358 million appeal for humanitarian operations inside Syria is only 45 per cent funded, while the $485 million appeal for the refugee response is only at 35 per cent.

“The message out of the forum is the political commitment to help the people of Syria through this crisis at the humanitarian level really needs to translate into more funding support for the humanitarian operations that are being conducted for those that are in need,” said Mr. Ging. “That translates into broadening the base of donors.”

At the Forum, the United States announced $32 million in additional funding, while the United Kingdom announced an additional £6 million [around $9.5 million]. Other donors pledged to respond to the underfunding challenge without providing specifics today.

“What we look forward to in the coming weeks is that new donors, particularly from the Gulf countries, will come forward and support the appeal as they have been indicating that they will do. We need their funding support,” Mr. Ging stated.

At the news briefing, UN officials also highlighted the need to expedite the delivery of winter packages, which include blankets, kerosene, stoves, winter clothes and materials to winterize tents – given the onset of colder weather in the region.

“I’m afraid winter is not going to wait for us. Winter is not going to wait for the funds to be raised,” said the Regional Refugee Coordinator from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Panos Moumtzis.

“We’re very concerned for the lack of funding and while we see a significant international interest on the Syria situation, we want to make sure that the financial support that is provided also matches the needs as they evolve fairly quickly on the ground,” he stated.

Mr. Moumtzis reported that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating, both inside Syria and on the refugee front. In the last 24 hours alone, over 11,000 Syrian refugees fled to neighbouring countries – 9,000 to Turkey, 1,000 to Jordan and 1,000 to Lebanon. This brings the total number of registered or assisted Syrian refugees in the region to over 408,000.

In addition to the shortage of funds, another main challenge faced by humanitarian actors is access, according to the UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Radhouane Nouicer.

“As long as the parties involved in this conflict do not respect the neutrality and the impartiality of humanitarian actors, access will continue to be difficult,” he told the news conference.

Another challenge, Mr. Nouicer noted, is the need for more humanitarian partners inside Syria. “The existing partnerships are effective but they’re not enough to cover the huge and diversified needs of the civilian population,” he added.

Drawn-out displacement, insecurity, difficulties in helping acutely vulnerable people, funding shortages, and a ‘not in my backyard’ attitude are major current obstacles to quality protection, the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Erika Feller, of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told the annual meeting of the refugee agency’s governing Executive Committee in Geneva.

“UNHCR still has to make efforts to improve its own response. By the same token political will is not consistently enough behind protection. This is disturbingly evidenced in a prevailing attitude in a number of states to the effect: ‘Yes, we sympathize with your plight, but resolve it please elsewhere,’” she said.

UNHCR’s Executive Committee meets annually to review and approve the agency’s programmes and budget, advise on international protection and discuss a wide range of other issues with UNHCR and its intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.

In her remarks, Feller cited Mali – where Islamic militants have seized control of the north, imposing strict Sharia law and sending 260,000 refuges fleeing into neighbouring countries in a major humanitarian emergency for UNHCR – to highlight the difficulties involved in providing quality protection to individuals among the 700,000 worldwide who have become refugees so far this year.

In countries neighbouring Mali, she said, the proximity of refugees to the insecure border, physical difficulties in accessing and monitoring refugees spread across wide areas, tensions among different displaced groups and shortages of funds are combining to ensure that refugees get nothing more than basic life-saving help.

In such environments, she noted, preventing problems such as military recruitment of children, child labour or sexual exploitation of children is becoming more difficult.

While noting “very positive” efforts under way by states to collaborate on regional strategies to tackle these issues, Ms. Feller cautioned that regional cooperation is not an end in itself. “Its aims must include stronger national asylum systems, not their replacement, and for States to share more equitably the burdens and responsibilities of protecting refugees,” she said.

This year has so far seen mass displacement in areas of Africa and the Middle East, principally from conflicts in Syria, South Sudan and Sudan, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. People newly displaced in these areas are an addition to the 42.5 million refugees, internally displaced people and asylum-seekers globally.

Feller echoed a call made on Monday by the High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, for states to do more to help those countries that host major refugee populations, including by supporting funding arrangements for the local integration of people who are unable to return home, and she cited the need for more resettlement places as a further solution. Globally, demand for resettlement places currently outstrips availability by a factor of 10 persons for each resettlement place available.

The UN official also underlined the need for more concerted action to reduce risks for specific vulnerable groups, including the growing numbers of unaccompanied refugee children worldwide, disabled people and people fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Displaced children lose access to education or end up being placed in immigration detention, and girls and women often have particular difficulties, she said.

“Situations of forced displacement are not gender neutral; they affect women and girls disproportionately. Exposure to rape, human trafficking, survival sex, in tandem with lack of documentation and exclusion from support and services, is commonplace,” she stressed, adding that UNHCR was working to fight impunity by strengthening its work in preventing sexual- or gender-based violence, and ensuring that justice is more accessible for victims.

The revised Syria Humanitarian Response Plan focuses on the priority areas of health, food, livelihoods, infrastructure rehabilitation, community services, education and shelter, in Homs, Hama, Idlib, Damascus, rural Damascus, Deir Ezzor and Aleppo, as well as areas hosting large numbers of internally displaced people.

It was launched at the Syria Humanitarian Forum in Geneva which brought together over 350 participants from Member States, regional organizations, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN humanitarian agencies to mobilize the necessary resources to provide assistance to the hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by the conflict.

“At the moment, the entire civilian population inside Syria is gripped by fear and despair,” John Ging, the Director of the Coordination and Response Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters after the Forum. “The basis for that fear is very real.”

UN officials have been calling for enhanced international support to respond to the growing crisis, which has been escalating in recent weeks in many towns and villages, as well as the country’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. More than 18,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 18 months ago.

OCHA estimates that over 1.2 million people are internally displaced, more than half of whom are children forced from their homes. There are also more than 245,000 Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, with more than 100,000 people registered as refugees in August alone.

“This begins to give you a sense of the scale of the tragedy that is unfolding, and the fact that it’s escalating, rather than dissipating,” said Ging, who chaired the Forum.

“It also presents for us on the humanitarian side an enormous challenge,” he added. “Humanitarian action is not a solution in conflict. The solution in conflict is political resolution that ends the conflict and takes the issues into a political process.

“But while there is failure to find that process even to bring about a political resolution to this conflict and end to the violence, we in the humanitarian community have to step up and do more in evermore dangerous circumstances to help people who are suffering more.”

Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, said: “Considering how fast this crisis is growing, and the number of people it is affecting, Yemen is becoming one of the direst humanitarian crises in the world today with record malnutrition rates. But it is also among the crises that risk slipping off the radar of international donors. We cannot allow that. The European Commission is boosting its humanitarian support so that it can reach with relief more of the worst-affected people, the majority of whom are women, children and refugees. We are helping those who cannot help themselves, but we are also building bridges to rehabilitation – this is the only way to help Yemen pull out from the bottom where its chronic problems have dragged it”.

Conflict in the North is affecting around one million people, while more than 250,000 are suffering due to conflict in the South, and Yemen’s malnutrition levels are among the world’s highest with one million children suffering from acute malnutrition.

10 million Yemenis (40% of the population) live mainly on bread and tea. In some governorates like Hodeida, along the center of Yemen’s western coast, the level of global acute malnutrition is 32%, more than double the internationally recognized emergency level of 15%. The continuing influx of refugees from the Horn of Africa is adding to the humanitarian needs. Another challenge is the restricted access to those in need, caused by fighting and the repeated attacks on and kidnappings of relief workers.

The new aid allocation brings to €40 million the Commission’s 2012 humanitarian assistance to Yemen. The EU is as much as possible linking these humanitarian interventions with early recovery and development programmes (especially in the areas of food security and public health).

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab peninsula. Over 43% of the population lives below the poverty line on less than EUR 2 a day. It has the world’s third highest rate of malnutrition.

Poverty combined with conflict, drought, refugee flows and rising food prices, has aggravated an already deep humanitarian crisis during the last year.

Since 2004 an armed conflict in the north has seen six major cycles of fighting and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. More than 310,000 have not yet been able to return to their homes. Those who have gone home now struggle with slow reconstruction and a lack of even the most basic services. The conflict has also had a severe impact on the livelihoods of a million people living close to the former fighting zones.

Flight from fighting has also displaced over 170,000 people in the South who are unable to return to their homes and have no employment prospects.

Yemen is also directly affected by the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. Over 250,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia, are stranded in the country and live in precarious conditions either in Kharaz, the only camp for refugees, or in poor urban areas.

It is very difficult to bring aid to those who need it in Yemen as a worsening security situation means that aid workers struggle to reach many areas. This leaves large numbers of displaced people isolated from essential humanitarian aid.

The European Commission maintains its long-term commitment to helping alleviate Yemen’s acute humanitarian needs. Since 1994 it has provided more than €93 million in vital assistance to the affected population.

“The humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly because of the inadequacy of the response. The situation in Mali is desperate, but not hopeless,” stressed the Director of Operations of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), John Ging.

“There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way the humanitarian response is funded. We can avoid a disaster, but only if the opportunities for a quick scaling up of the response are not missed,” he added.

In January, fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels resumed in northern Mali. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, and political instability in the wake of a coup d’état in March, have uprooted more than 420,000 people, according to OCHA, with many fleeing to the neighbouring countries of Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso due to insecurity.

These countries, however, are among the most severely affected by the food and nutrition crisis raging across the Sahel region of West Africa, which has put 18 million lives at risk.

During a three-day mission to Mali, Ging visited displacement camps in Mopti in the north, where he heard first-hand the traumatic stories of violence against women and children who had fled their homes.

In Bamako, the capital, Mr. Ging told reporters that “there appears to be a misconception that without a solution to the security and political crisis in the north of the country, little can be done to scale up the humanitarian response. In fact, 80 per cent of the country’s humanitarian needs are in the south, where there is relative stability.”

While work is being carried out by national and international organizations in the northern part of the country, Mr. Ging said the lack of funding is hampering the scaling up of activities in the region. Currently, only 42 per cent of the $214 million required for the humanitarian response has been received.

Health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene are the most critically underfunded sectors, Ging said, adding that this could quickly lead to the outbreak of epidemics like cholera, which is threatening to spread throughout West Africa.

“Too many people are dying, in too many places. Sometimes they are caught in the crossfire; frequently they are targeted,” Secretary-General Ban said in a Council open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, which other senior UN officials also addressed. “More and more, we are witness to an appalling catalogue of sexual violence, forced disappearances, torture and other acts that violate, often egregiously, international humanitarian and human rights law,” Ban added.

The UN chief cited recent developments across the world as examples. These included Afghanistan, where the UN mission there has reported a rise in civilian deaths, mostly attributable to anti-Government forces; Cote d’Ivoire, where seven ‘blue helmets’ serving with the UN peacekeeping mission there recently lost their lives defending villagers from armed attacks; and in Syria, where civilians have been killed in clashes between Government forces and armed opposition groups.

“Across this geography of conflict, we simply must do more. We must do more to protect women and children in particular, more to prevent attacks against journalists, more to save innocent lives,” Ban said.

The Secretary-General noted that the Council has made important progress over the last year and a half in the area of protection of civilians.

He pointed to the Council’s unity in halting violence and upholding democracy in Cote d’Ivoire during a conflict over the outcome of presidential elections in late 2010, as well as the efforts of international forces to prevent a clear threat to civilians in eastern Libya, after the regime of former leader Muammar al-Qadhafi demonstrated its readiness to carry out large-scale killings in 2011.

“The Council has also shown greater willingness to use targeted sanctions against those who violate international humanitarian and human rights law,” Mr. Ban said, adding that the recent landmark verdicts against former Liberian President Charles Taylor and Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga marked important steps for international justice and accountability.

In his remarks, the UN chief also highlighted the work of UN peacekeepers in protecting civilians in various conflict zones around the world.

“They are identifying and addressing threats through political efforts to prevent violence and resolve conflict; immediate physical protection; and building a broader protective environment for civilians,” Mr. Ban said. “This includes assistance for state and local institutions to better fulfil their fundamental responsibility to protect their citizens.”

Referring to his ninth report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, the Secretary-General said lessons had been learnt from past experiences, which has helped the development of new tools to improve peacekeeping efforts to carry out civilian protection mandates, including guidance on strategic planning and training.

He noted that the report highlights five continuing core challenges for civilian protection.

These include that parties to conflict must do more to comply with international humanitarian and human rights law; the need for a more systematic engagement with non-State armed groups; the provision of resources and forces to UN peacekeeping missions mandated to protect civilians; ensuring safe, timely and unhindered humanitarian access for civilians trapped in conflict; and, the need for accountability, centred on national authorities taking the steps necessary to protect civilians or bring the perpetrators of war crimes and gross human rights violations to justice.

Mr. Ban said that meeting these challenges requires political will – the will of the parties to conduct hostilities within the parameters of international law; to refrain from using explosive weapons in populated areas; to allow engagement with armed groups and open access to those in need of assistance; and to enforce discipline and hold accountable those who perpetrate violations.

It also implies the will, the Secretary-General said, on the part of the Council, to deliver on its long-standing commitment to the protection of civilians by consistently using the tools at its disposal, including the imposition of arms embargoes, targeted sanctions and referral of situations to the International Criminal Court.

“Beyond that, I also urge the Council and Member States to consider new approaches to prevent and respond to violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and ensure that the protection of civilians receives the attention it demands,” Ban said.

Addressing the same Council debate, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, echoed Mr. Ban, noting how the solution to many of the problems seen in contemporary conflicts is strengthened compliance by parties to conflict with the letter and spirit of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

“Ensuring such compliance begins, of course, with the parties to the conflict,” Ms. Amos said. “But the responsibility is not their alone. It is a responsibility that is incumbent on us all – the United Nations, its Member States and this Council. We can and must do more to fulfil that responsibility and ensure that the law has meaning for those it is intended to protect.”

In her remarks to the debate, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said that the human rights monitoring and protection work undertaken by the United Nations is essential to safeguarding civilians in armed conflict. She urged the Council continue to include explicit provisions on protection and accountability in its resolutions.

“Where missions receive monitoring and other human rights mandates, they should be given the necessary material and personnel resources to carry out their duties effectively,” Ms. Pillay said in a statement delivered on her behalf. “It is our responsibility to protect the lives of civilians using every tool available to use.”

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, said in a statement that more than 80 per cent of families in Gaza are dependent on humanitarian aid. In addition, Gaza remains subject to severe restrictions on imports, exports and the movement of people, by land, air and sea.

“This amounts to a collective punishment of all those living in Gaza and is a denial of basic human rights in contravention of international law,” stated Ms. Amos, who also serves as the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza for what it called security reasons after the Hamas group, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, ousted the Fatah movement in the Strip in 2007.

“While some steps have been taken to ease its impact, it is vital that the blockade be lifted immediately, so that essential services and infrastructure can be maintained,” Ms. Amos said.

The UN relief chief also noted that the opportunity to develop a sustainable economy would also reduce dependence on humanitarian assistance.

“The rights of all civilians, Palestinian and Israeli, must be protected and respected at all times, within the framework of international law,” she said. “All have a right to live free from the fear of indiscriminate violence and to live in peace, security and dignity.”

Senior UN officials as well as the diplomatic Quartet – comprising the UN, European Union, Russia and the United States – have repeatedly called over the past years for an end to the blockade, stating that while efforts to ease the closure were welcome, a full and immediate lifting was needed.