Jan Egeland

A senior UN official says he fears children waiting to be evacuated from the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area near the Syrian capital, Damascus, are being used as bargaining chips, according to BBC. 

The UN's humanitarian co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, told the BBC he believed that rebels had agreed to free government workers in exchange for the children.

The U.N. humanitarian adviser for Syria called on world powers on Thursday to help arrange the evacuation of 500 people, including 167 children, from the besieged Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, saying it has become a "humanitarian emergency", Reuters reported. 

Many of the richest countries are the "least generous" in supporting refugees or displaced people, a U.N. official and humanitarian aid expert has said, adding that Europe and the U.S. are making "embarrassingly" small efforts in this regard. 

The United Nations still has a "million questions" about a Syria deal struck last week by Russia, Turkey and Iran, with aid convoys almost totally stalled despite a reported reduction in the fighting, a U.N. aid official said on May 11.

The United Nations urged the United States, Russia, Turkey and Iran on April 6 to help establish a 72-hour cease-fire in Syria in order to deliver humanitarian aid, two days after a suspected chemical gas attack killed at least 86 people in the northern Syrian city of Idlib. 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov agreed on Sept. 14 that a cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria was holding, and extended it by 48 hours to allow for increased humanitarian access. 

At least 20 people were killed, including three children and two doctors,  in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Thursday, during air strikes by Syrian fighter jets. The UN described the situation in the city as ‘disastrous’. The Syrian air force bombed civilian houses including a hospital where members from the organisation ‘Doctors Without Borders’ were working at.

The United Nations should be able to deliver aid to all of Syria's 18 besieged areas within a week, a senior U.N. official said Feb. 18, after life-saving supplies reached five locations.

More than 20 human rights groups issued a joint plea on March 12 for the international community to take responsibility for suffering civilians as Syria's war approaches its fifth year.
      
In a report entitled "Failing Syria", the organisations criticised world powers for not implementing a series of UN Security Council resolutions on the conflict.