Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the humanitarian crisis - 2.2 million people have fled their homes and more than 1.6 million people have been displaced internally, which includes almost 900,000 children, and 620,000 people are refugees in neighbouring countries. It is my understanding, and maybe the witness will expand on it, that there has been an increase in hostilities recently and there have even been attacks on humanitarian organisations while carrying out their work. I think there may have been an attack on an ICRC compound in the past few days. Has the international community been in any way responsive to the need for additional humanitarian assistance? Mr. Rauchenstein mentioned the difficulty of getting humanitarian aid to the most needy people because of the difficulty in accessing the areas where they live. Obviously, there are additional costs when the humanitarian aid has to be delivered by plane or helicopter. Is Mr. Rauchenstein reasonably confident that the majority of the people who are in great need are getting at least some humanitarian assistance? From the point of view of the ICRC and other organisations that carry out exceptionally good work in those particular areas, is Mr. Rauchenstein confident that there are enough resources to try to meet in some meaningful way the terrible humanitarian disaster facing so many innocent and downtrodden people?