Syria: Hostilities and aid challenges persist across devastated country

In an update, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said more than 25,000 people have been newly uprooted from the northeastern city of Manbij where shelling and airstrikes have been reported.

OCHA noted that hostilities have been intensifying over the past week, particularly in eastern Aleppo and around the Tishreen Dam.

The dam is a key target for different groups of Syrian fighters vying for control of northern Syria. These include the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) and the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting alongside the PKK/YPG – the Kurdish Workers’ Party or People’s Protection Units.

Hundreds of thousands fleeing

As a result of the escalating violence, the number of newly displaced people has increased to 652,000 as of 27 January, OCHA said.

The deadly incidents reported in Syria’s northeast include shelling that struck a town in the Manbij countryside on 25 January, injuring an unverified number of children.

On Saturday, clashes affected a displacement camp in Jarablus north of Manbij, injuring seven including two children and destroying five shelters.

On the same day, a car bomb detonated in front of a hospital and school in Manbij city, reportedly killing one civilian and injuring seven others.

In the past week, OCHA, has also reported clashes in coastal areas with “increased criminal activities, including looting and vandalism, constraining the movements of civilians during night hours”.

The UN agency also noted continuing Israeli incursions into Quneitra in southern Syria, near the Golan Heights buffer zone that the Israeli military moved into - forces said temporarily - following the ouster of President Assad.

Massive aid needs

More widely across Syria’s governorates, the UN agency warned that a “lack of public services and liquidity constraints” have severely affected communities and the humanitarian response. In Homs and Hama, for instance, electricity is available for only 45 to 60 minutes every eight hours.

In northwest Syria, 102 health facilities have already run out of funds since the start of 2025. The UN and its humanitarian partners are appealing for $1.2 billion to help the most vulnerable 6.7 million people in Syria until March.

The developments came ahead of a UN Security Council meeting later on Thursday behind closed doors on Syria - and the reported declaration that head of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham and the caretaker authority in Damascus, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been declared transitional president.

It was also reported that the new caretaker authority has decided to suspend the Syrian constitution.