HIGHLIGHTS
UN–SARC convoy delivers multi-sector assistance to 50,000 displaced persons at the informal Rukban settlement
UN records more than 130 attacks affecting health care facilities in Syria in 2018
Countrywide average price of food baskets decreases by 40 percent since December 2016
UN estimates nearly 1.2 million people reside in HTR areas in Syria
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
On November 4, a UN–Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy reached the informal Rukban settlement—located along the Syria–Jordan border berm—from Syria’s capital city of Damascus, delivering food, health, nutrition, and other assistance sufficient for 50,000 people, according to the UN. In addition, the UN simultaneously vaccinated children against measles and polio at the settlement. Access to humanitarian assistance has remained limited for settlement residents since mid-January, when a UN operation from Jordan last delivered food and relief commodities to Rukban.
As of September 30, the UN had recorded more than 130 attacks affecting health care facilities across Syria in 2018, compared to approximately 100 attacks from January– September 2017. To date in 2018, attacks on health facilities have resulted in the deaths of at least 97 people, including 17 health care providers, and injured nearly 170 additional individuals, according to the UN.
Although at least 6 million people in Syria remain food-insecure and an additional 4.5 million people are at risk of becoming food-insecure, the countrywide average price of food baskets has decreased by 40 percent since December 2016, primarily due to improved security conditions in Aleppo, Ar Raqqah, Hamah, Homs, and Rif Damascus governorates, as well as the reopening of supply routes, according to an October assessment by USAID/FFP partners the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN World Food Program (WFP).
Nearly 1.2 million people were residing in UN-designated hard-to-reach (HTR) areas as of late October, a reduction of approximately 300,000 people since July, when the UN estimated approximately 1.5 million people resided in HTR areas.