DAMASCUS, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Friday renewed calls for unimpeded humanitarian access to the people in need in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area in the east of the capital Damascus.
Ali al-Zatari, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Syria, said in a statement that all parties, and those with influence over them, should allow immediate, safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access to all in need, particularly those in the besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
He called for an urgently required one-month cessation of hostilities.
"We will continue appealing for access to all those in need, and remind those responsible of their obligation to grant it under the international humanitarian law," Zatari said.
The statement noted that the latest aid shipment reached the Nashabieh area in Eastern Ghouta on Feb.14, which was the first humanitarian access to Eastern Ghouta in 78 days.
"Whilst this development is welcome, it is absolutely insufficient," the statement said, noting that the people reached in Nashabieh represent only 2.6 percent of the 272,500 people in need in East Ghouta.
It said the rations delivered will be shared among families, with five families sharing one basket.
"This is not enough to sustain them for long," it said.
Meanwhile, the statement warned that the increase in food insecurity in that area is impacting children, as the UN team witnessed a number of cases of severe acute malnutrition.
Meanwhile, medical facilities there are running out of critical supplies, and the escalation in hostilities over the last weeks forced more people to flee their homes.
The statement is the third to be issued in a short period of time, reflecting the urgent humanitarian need of the people in that area who are caught in the battles between the rebels who are controlling the Eastern Ghouta and the government forces.
Four key rebel groups are positioned inside Eastern Ghouta such as the Islam Army, Failaq al-Rahman, Ahrar al-Sham and the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), otherwise known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.
A couple of months ago, the rebels in the city of Harasta in Eastern Ghouta waged a large-scale offensive against a key military base in that city, triggering a military showdown between the sides.
