I. Introduction
The present report is the fifty-fourth submitted pursuant to paragraph 17 of Security Council resolution 2139 (2014), paragraph 10 of resolution 2165 (2014), paragraph 5 of resolution 2191 (2014), paragraph 5 of resolution 2258 (2015), paragraph 5 of resolution 2332 (2016), paragraph 6 of resolution 2393 (2017) and paragraph 12 of resolution 2401 (2018), in which the Council requested the SecretaryGeneral to report, every 30 days, on the implementation of the resolutions by all parties to the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The information contained herein is based on data available to agencies of the United Nations system and from the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and other relevant sources. Data from agencies of the United Nations system on their humanitarian deliveries have been reported for July 2018.
II. Major development
Box 1
Key points: July 2018
Continued significant military escalation in the south-western Syrian Arab Republic resulted in the displacement of up to 325,000 people by early July. By the end of the month, 180,000 people, including some 100,000 in Qunaytirah Governorate, were estimated to remain newly displaced in affected areas. The United Nations humanitarian response drew on supplies pre-positioned through cross-border deliveries from Jordan, which remained suspended throughout the reporting period, and assistance delivered from inside the country. Nevertheless, those newly displaced in Qunaytirah remained largely cut off from that assistance.
Military operations in the south-west involved aerial bombardment and artillery shelling, resulting in civilian deaths and destruction of and damage to civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. Large numbers of humanitarian workers and service providers were reportedly caught up in the fighting, with many forced to flee alongside other civilians. By the end of July, government forces had reportedly taken control of the vast majority of the south-west.
The humanitarian situation in the north-west continued to deteriorate, with the total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Aleppo and Idlib Governorates having increased by more than 570,000 since the beginning of 2018, to a total of 4.2 million. Thousands of evacuees from the south-west were transported to Idlib, following a pattern seen earlier in the year with the arrival of close to 130,000 internally displaced persons in Idlib between March and May. In northern Aleppo Governorate, insecurity in Afrin and the areas formerly covered by Operation Euphrates Shield continued to have an impact on civilians.
On 16 July, an agreement was reached providing for the evacuation of the entire population of Fu‘ah and Kafraya, which had been besieged by non-State armed opposition groups since March 2015. On 19 July, the population was transported on buses to the Mahalij shelter in Aleppo Governorate. The United Nations was not a party to the agreement, nor did it have access to the evacuees, but it contributed assistance in coordination with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other local organizations. With the evacuation of the two villages, the United Nations no longer categorized any areas or communities in the country as besieged as at the end of the reporting period.
Some 147,000 civilians have returned to the city of Raqqah since the end of hostilities in October 2017, the high level of explosive hazard contamination notwithstanding.
United Nations humanitarian agencies and partners continued to reach millions of people in need. Humanitarian assistance provided from within the country by United Nations agencies reached more than 3.3 million people with food assistance. Four inter-agency humanitarian convoys carrying life-saving relief, food and medical supplies were deployed in July to the hard-to-reach locations of Duma in Rif Dimashq, Hulah in northern rural Homs, Harbinafsih in southern rural Hama and Bayt Jinn,
Baytima, Bayt Sabir and Kafr Hawar in Rif Dimashq, reaching 133,500 people in need. In July, the United Nations delivered life-saving food assistance to close to 550,000 people through cross-border deliveries.