The humanitarian situation in the conflict zone has deteriorated to what aid officials are calling a crisis within a crisis, as access restrictions that began as occasional security checkpoints have solidified into near-total blockades that have prevented food, medicine, and clean water from reaching an estimated 340,000 displaced civilians for more than three weeks.
Six major international relief organizations issued a joint statement Thursday warning they would be forced to halt operations in the most critically affected districts within 72 hours if security conditions did not permit convoy movement. The statement described a situation in which distribution points that were serving 5,000 people per day have been forced to close, and medical facilities that depended on regular supply deliveries are now rationing antibiotics and anesthetics.
One relief coordinator, speaking by phone from a staging area outside the restricted zone, described the situation for her organization's local staff members as increasingly desperate. Three of her local employees had been killed in the past two weeks while attempting to reach isolated communities, she said, and a dozen more had been detained briefly at checkpoints. "We cannot ask people to risk their lives indefinitely when we do not know if the supplies they are trying to deliver will ever get through," she said.
“We cannot ask people to risk their lives indefinitely when we do not know if the supplies they are trying to deliver will ever get through.”
— Relief coordinator, speaking from outside the conflict zone
Health officials with the World Health Organization said Thursday that preventable disease outbreaks in displacement camps are now a near-certainty without immediate intervention. Cholera, measles, and acute respiratory infections are all tracking above epidemic thresholds in several camp populations, where sanitation infrastructure is overwhelmed and vaccination rates have collapsed due to supply disruptions. A team of epidemiologists has been denied entry to the zone for four days.
International pressure on the parties to the conflict to grant humanitarian access has intensified, with representatives from a dozen governments issuing formal diplomatic protests this week. But observers say the parties have little practical incentive to respond to condemnation alone, and that without consequences attached to the access restrictions, the situation is unlikely to change. A draft Security Council resolution that would create a humanitarian corridor is under negotiation, but faces the same obstacles that have blocked previous binding measures.