Special Briefing
Kelly Clements
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Christa Capozzola, USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian
Via Teleconference
Washington, DC
April 26, 2012
MR. VENTRELL: Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining the call this afternoon. Today we have with us Kelly Clements, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration; and Christa Capozzola, Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID. They’re going to be talking about humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict in Syria.
As a reminder, this call is on the record. I do want to mention that our original invite, in error, had said that this is not for broadcast. Because this is an on-the-record call, the audio of course can be used for broadcast.
So having said that, I’m going to turn it over to Kelly and then Christa to make some opening remarks, and then we’ll do some Q&A afterwards. So Kelly, go ahead.
MS. CLEMENTS: Thank you so much, and we appreciate you all joining us on the call today. The call is intended to draw your attention to the efforts that are being made to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, both in Syria and in neighboring countries.
First, I’ll start with the numbers. The UN estimates that there are over 1 million Syrians inside Syria in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Of that number, it’s an estimated 300,000 internally displaced.
Second, there are over 66,000 refugees in neighboring countries. And in addition to that, there are existing refugees, Palestinian refugees, totaling about 500,000 inside Syria as well as a hundred thousand Iraqi refugees inside Syria. So a sophisticated relief structure is already in place.
Third, in terms of funding, the United States has dedicated some $33 million to support the important work to assist and protect those in need in Syria and neighboring countries, and much more is on the way. It’s important to note that humanitarian assistance, the way that we will be talking about it in this call, is separate and distinct from the nonlethal assistance being provided by others. And our approach is to work through international and nongovernmental organizations. This strengthens our ability to deliver humanitarian assistance because those organizations have staff and infrastructure in Syria prior to the start of the conflict, which can be well utilized in current efforts to assist civilians in need.
The United States commends the brave and dedicated work that the humanitarian organizations on the ground in Syria and in the neighboring countries are carrying out, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and the World Food Program, and many international nongovernmental organizations.
There are thousands of courageous SARC – this is the Syrian Arab Red Crescent – volunteers risking their lives every day to deliver food, medical care, essential lifesaving assistance to displaced and conflict-affected Syrians throughout the country. And just yesterday, we learned that there was a SARC volunteer who was killed just outside of Damascus and Duma, and three others were injured while on duty.
I also want to just take a moment – and we can talk more about this – to commend the generous efforts of the governments of Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq in protecting and assisting those fleeing the violence in Syria. Without their efforts, many more would go in great need. And with that, I’ll turn it over to my USAID colleague, Christa Capozzola, for a few comments, and then we’ll take your questions.
MS. CAPOZZOLA: Thanks, Kelly. Let me know if you can’t hear me because I’m on speaker. The ongoing conflict in Syria has created a severe and growing humanitarian crisis, as you know, and the humanitarian organizations currently operating in Syria are tirelessly working to get aid out as quickly as possible into areas where safety and security are questionable. Aid workers in Syria are putting their lives in jeopardy every day to get this relief to vulnerable children, women, and men caught in this crisis. And to amplify Kelly’s comments, we just want to commend the selfless efforts.
To help meet the growing needs, the United States is providing food, clean water, basic healthcare, medical and other emergency relief supplies to benefit more than 400,000 people in Syria and neighboring countries so far. One of our largest emergency partners right now is the World Food Program, which has been helping to reach a hundred thousand people per month in some of the most conflict-affected cities and zones since this conflict began. World Food Program, WFP, is being distributed in coordination with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. So far, they’ve reached 11 of the 14 provinces in Syria.
Beginning last week, with support from the United States and other donors, WFP has expanded its emergency food assistance to reach now 250,000 conflict-affected Syrians, so the program is expanding. While some aid is reaching people in need through the Red Crescent, other UN agencies, as Kelly mentioned, and other international organizations, current humanitarian access restrictions remain a significant challenge to the aid effort. After months of working under these conditions, the aid organizations working in Syria are extremely stretched. To continue alleviating suffering and saving lives, they need more support and capacity from the international community.
We continue to urge the Government of Syria to allow the UN and its partners to expand humanitarian operations as soon as possible. It’s critical that humanitarian actors have safe, regular, unhindered access to provide lifesaving aid and emergency relief to those in need.
That’s it for now. Thanks. We’re happy to take your questions.