UNITED NATIONS: The director of U.N. humanitarian operations Friday warned that if a military offensive takes place in the Syrian province of Idlib and millions of people start fleeing, aid operations to help them will be overwhelmed.
“There are some three million people living in the Idlib de-escalation zone, which includes parts of Idlib, Aleppo, Lattakia, and Hama governorates,” John Ging, director of the Operational Division at the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council.
The Idlib de-escalation zone is the last remaining of the four created by the Astana process, which is poised to be violated. The process, initiated in early 2017 in the neutral Kazakh capital of Astana, works in tandem with the Geneva talks with an aim to resolve the Syrian crisis.
Ging told the 15-member Council this worst-case scenario “has the potential to create a humanitarian emergency at a scale not yet seen through this crisis,” now in its eighth year.
He urged council members to ask the parties to cease hostilities in the Idlib de-escalation zone.  Ging also called for protection of civilians, humanitarian and medical personnel, hospitals, schools, and other infrastructure as well as freedom for people to move, access for aid deliveries, and increased funding.
While donors including Britain and Germany have recently provided resources, he said, the U.N. is still “woefully short of the $311 million that we estimate is required if there is an increase in violence resulting in mass displacement.”
Ging said humanitarian aid is being prepositioned inside Idlib and in surrounding areas, and “plans are in place to support up to 900,000 women, children and men that could be affected by conflict.”
He warned that if millions of people flee Idlib, however, it “will overwhelm all capacity to respond regardless of plans or funding made available.”