“The humanitarian situation in Aleppo is desperate,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Yoka Brandt, who visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, last week. “Our goal is to reach children who most need our assistance, no matter where they are.”

The delivery, carried out by UNICEF, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other UN agencies, consisted of a 15-truck convoy that travelled from Damascus to Aleppo. UNICEF’s supplies included diarrhoeal disease kits to treat 30,000 people, medical kits for 20,000 people, 2,000 family hygiene kits, cooking stoves, high energy biscuits and school supplies.

UNICEF also delivered five generators and eight water tanks that will provide safe drinking water to more than 1 million people in Aleppo. The installation of these generators has already begun, the agency said in a news release.

Aleppo, which has been difficult to access due to insecurity and fighting, has the highest number of affected people in the country – at least 2.4 million people. According to UNICEF, half of these are children.

“Humanitarian needs, especially for food, water and shelter, are very severe,” said Ahmedou Bahah, who accompanied the convoy as head of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme in Syria.

According to UNICEF, living conditions, especially in the worst affected areas, have become deplorable. Prices have tripled or quadrupled, and families are struggling to provide their children with basic supplies including bread, vegetables and fruits, milk, yogurt and eggs.

Since the beginning of the year, UNICEF has participated in 20 UN convoys, 15 of which were to areas controlled by opposition groups. Through these and other missions, UNICEF and its partners have provided 10 million people with access to safe drinking water, vaccinated 1.5 million children, enrolled more than 300,000 children in schools and supported more than 450 school clubs where children receive the support needed to overcome some of the horrors they have witnessed.

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced. In addition, at least 6.8 million Syrian require urgent humanitarian assistance.

“The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) reports that, near its base in Kitchanga, North Kivu, heavy fighting took place,” deputy UN spokesperson Eduardo del Buey told journalists in New York.

The situation remains “tense” following the clashes between Congolese armed forces and elements of the Alliance des Patriotes pour un Congo Libre et Souverain (APCLS), an armed group, del Buey added.

At least one civilian was killed and nine other people injured, MONUSCO reported, including one of its peacekeepers, who was shot in the arm and remains in stable condition.

The sheltering of civilians at its base in Kitchanga falls within the Mission’s mandated role to protect civilians, defend human rights and support provisions of humanitarian aid.

Nearly a million people have been displaced in North Kivu by clashes between DRC’s national army and fighters from the rebel M23 group, and in recent weeks, more than 300,000 people have been displaced by additional fighting in the south-eastern province of Katanga.

The M23 rebels are former DRC army troops who mutinied in April 2012, and named themselves after a 23 March 2009 peace agreement that they reportedly say has not been implemented.

To assist MONUSCO ‘blue helmets’ in protecting civilians, the UN Security Council is currently considering a military brigade with peace enforcement authorities beyond traditional UN peacekeeping.

A decision is expected after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefs the Council next week on recent developments related to the DRC, including the signing of a UN-backed peace framework on 24 February whereby regional countries honour DRC’s sovereignty, and work in support of its stabilization.