UN: Some 13 Mln People In Dire Need Of Help In Ukraine

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) NEW YORK, April 9 (KUNA) -- UN humanitarian chief has warned that around 13 million people in Ukraine were in dire need of humanitarian assistance amidst continuous displacement and destruction of basic services thus inflicting huge damage to civilians.
Tom Fletcher, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called, during a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine's peace and security late Tuesday, on the international community to double efforts to protect civilians who were under constant bombardment.
He said the Russian raids on Ukrainian cities resulted in the rise of human casualties and inflicted damage to vital infrastructure like health care, housing, schools and playgrounds.
Fletcher called for the protection of civilians and infrastructure in line with the international humanitarian law. The killing of civilians and destruction of populated areas must stop, he stressed.
"The war still causing mass displacement with around 3.7 million Ukrainians displaced, and seven million others as refugees," he said.
The UN official said relief workers were unable to reach around 1.5 million civilians in Russian-controlled Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia.
The international humanitarian law stipulates that warring parties should allow passage of relief supplies immediately, he said.
Fletcher reminded the UNSC members of the UN's USD 2.6 billion appeal and said only 17 percent of that sum was actually received.
Without funding, he added, the humanitarian programs would be reduced thus leave millions of people without food, health care or shelter.
"If you cannot stop the attacks on civilians in Ukraine and other areas, then at least provide us with security we need and necessary materials to save the largest number of survivors," he said. (end)
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