WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Friday appealed for $30 million in aid to carry out life-sustaining assistance to 18,000 civilians from besieged Yarmouk refugee camp, including 3,500 children.
The appeal for $30 million is part of the UNRWA Syria Crisis Appeal, which provides humanitarian support to 480,000 Palestine refugees throughout Syria and to those displaced to Lebanon and Jordan. The funds for Yarmouk are for an initial 90-day response.
UNRWA, tasked with ensuring the well-being of Palestinian refugees, said it has significantly expanded its response in areas neighboring Yarmouk, on the southern edge of Damascus, where civilians have sought shelter amid a deteriorating security situation since armed groups began fighting in and around the camp.
'This remains a volatile, rapidly changing environment of armed conflict and we must be prepared to respond to those in need, wherever they are,' said Michael Kingsley-Nyinah, UNRWA Director in Syria in a statement.
Cut off from the world for almost two years, people in the Yarmouk refugee camp remain deprived of food, water, and subjected to frequent eruptions of armed violence. That camp is, unfortunately, not the only crisis facing Palestine refugees in Syria, UNRWA stressed.
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