“We face a funding shortfall and the humanitarian crisis in the country is becoming larger and broader in magnitude,” reported a joint statement signed by the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Adam Abdel Mawla, and the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syrian Crisis, Ramanathan Balakrishnan.

The statement explains that in addition to the 16.7 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance, at least 510,000 Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians who fled from Lebanon to Syria since September 24th, also require aid.

It was reportedly stated that More than 75 percent of the refugees are women, children, and disabled, noting that they were forced to seek refuge in a country already suffering from a protracted humanitarian crisis for more than a decade. Most of them, are hosted by relatives and friends in communities already facing difficulties in accessing services provided through humanitarian response mechanisms which have already reached a breaking point.

Only 27.5 percent of the $4.07 billion humanitarian response plan for Syria is currently funded.

The UN has received only $32 million, including a $12 million allocation from the Central Emergency Fund since the launch of the emergency appeal last September, which sought an additional $324 million to meet the needs of Lebanese refugees.

Concluding the statement, Abdel Mawla and Balakrishan urged the donor community to significantly increase its support for the humanitarian response in Syria, noting that the costs of inaction will be enormous and go beyond deepening human suffering, in terms of increased instability and migration flows in the region.

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