Jan Egeland, the Special Adviser on the Humanitarian Task Force for Syria, stresses the need for access in Wadi Barada, which supplies most of the water to Damascus, Syria, where some 5.5 million people have no water. The United Nations has received reports of the displacement of at least 7,000 people from the Wadi Barada area north of the city due to recent fighting.
On 1 January, António Guterres took over as the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. After taking office he issued a statement appealing for peace and asking that 2017 be a year for peace.
At its 51st meeting, on 26 November, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict agreed, in connection with the examination of the first report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic (S/2014/31), to address the following message to all parties to the armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic through a public statement by its Chair:
