REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEY YORK -- More than 1,130 people have been evacuated from Syria's old city of Homs, since the agreed " humanitarian pause" for the long besieged city started four days ago, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday.
According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,130 people have so far been evacuated from Homs old city, all reporting starvation conditions, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.
The humanitarian pause, agreed upon between Damascus and the UN, allows children and the elderly out and aid into the old city of Homs, where 2,500 Syrians have been trapped without succor for nearly two years.
The truce, which is the first of its kind, had barely begun with the evacuation of 83 people on Friday when sniper and other fire temporarily interrupted the process.
Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Syria, who is in Homs, said about 500 children have come out of the old city, looking "terrified, frail and emaciated. In general, there are issues of malnutrition and also a need for vaccination for children," the spokesman noted.
Before the operation started, Abdel-Jelil said, UNICEF estimated more than 1,000 children being trapped in old Homs. He called for ready access to the children and civilians to provide them with humanitarian assistance, Nesirky said.
The humanitarian teams continue to be on the ground, monitoring conditions, and working with interlocutors to see how this humanitarian pause can move into a more sustained way of delivering aid and evacuating people who want to leave, Nesirky said, noting that food supplies were delivered for 2,500 people.
Noting that this is not a one-off, the spokesman highlighted the need for sustained aid delivery for old Homs and all the besieged areas where 250,000 people are living, and for all those in need across Syria.
Meanwhile the UN refugee agency reported on Tuesday that more than 20,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey since the beginning of this year, marking the biggest influx in a year.
More than 500 people arrive every day through crossing points recently, with the highest daily figure reaching between 1,000 and 2,000, UNHCR chief spokesperson Melissa Fleming was quoted as saying in Geneva by the semi-official Anatolia news agency.
"This new influx appears to be spurred in part by the upsurge in fighting reported across the border in northern Syria, particularly in and around Aleppo, and the conflict among opposition groups as well," said Fleming.
The influx this year adds to the existing pressure on Turkey's emergency refugee response, Fleming said, adding that the UNHCR is discussing with authorities additional support to help Turkey cope with the situation.
Fleming also said that more Syrian refugees were awaiting registration in urban areas in Turkey; many of them are believed to be in vulnerable condition and in need of urgent assistance.
According to the Turkish government, the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has exceeded 714,000, 70 percent of them women and children.
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