U.N. official says humanitarian situation in Syria deteriorating but efforts to reach those affected continue

"Humanitarian agencies are trying to keep up with the rising needs stemming from the ongoing conflict in Syria, the top United Nations relief official said [Tuesday], while noting that limited access is preventing everyone who requires assistance from receiving it," the U.N. News Centre reports. Speaking to journalists following the Syria Humanitarian Forum in Geneva, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos "said (.pdf) the situation in Syria is getting worse, with the violence causing widespread destruction and having a devastating impact on the lives of ordinary Syrians, women, men and children," according to the news service.

Amos, who also serves as the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, noted the destruction of health care centers and schools, saying, "We are watching a humanitarian tragedy unfold before our eyes. We must do all we can to reassure the people that we care and that we will not let them down," the news service states (2/19). The WHO said on Tuesday that a typhoid outbreak is occurring in an opposition-controlled region of Syria because people are drinking from the contaminated Euphrates River, Reuters notes (Nebehay, 2/19).