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Number of Hard-to-Reach Syrians Down to 4.5Mln Due to 'Enormous Changes' - UN

© Sputnik / Mikhail VoskresenskiyChildren walking along a street in Deir ez-Zor, Syria
Children walking along a street in Deir ez-Zor, Syria - Sputnik International
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Changes on the ground have led the UN humanitarian task force to scale down the number of people in hard-to-reach areas to 4.5 million, adviser to the UN special envoy for Syria on humanitarian issues Jan Egeland said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — He acknowledged at a briefing in Geneva "enormous changes" in the Syrian battlefield, including new frontlines and local agreements over the past four months.

"In some respects, more has happened the first four months of this year than in the previous four years," Egeland said. "This has also led to us revising now more frequently the numbers of people living in hard-to-reach areas. They have gone from roughly 5 million to now 4.5 million people."

The number of people in besieged areas was down 20,000 people to 625,000 people, he added, estimating that 80 percent of residents across 13 areas are besieged by government forces.

"There is still 95,000 people in Deir ez-Zor besieged by Islamic State [Daesh]. There is now down to 12,000 people in Foua and Kefraya that is besieged by armed opposition groups. And then it is the poor people of Yarmouk besieged twice… 8,000-10,000 there," he said.

A soldier of the Syrian Arab Army at an observation post at the frontline in the al-Kom village of the Quneitra province in Syria - Sputnik International
Russia-Proposed Safe Zones Could Have Positive Effect on 2.6Mln Syrians - UN
Egeland added that the UN's four-convoys-per-week humanitarian assistance capacity in besieged areas is down to an average of one convoy per week.

The civil war in Syria has been lasting for around six years with government troops fighting against numerous opposition factions and terror organizations such as al-Nusra Front and Daesh, outlawed in Russia.

The nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime was introduced on December 30, 2016. Terrorist organizations are not part of the ceasefire.

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