Damascus, Mar 3 (IANS): Humanitarian needs in Syria have continued to rise with 14.6 million people in need in 2022 and an estimated 6.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), said a UN spokesman on Wednesday.

This is the largest number of IDPs in the world and they face high needs and limited access to basic services, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Ongoing hostilities, poor infrastructure and ever-decreasing purchasing power are undermining people's resilience. Some 90 per cent of the population is estimated to live below the poverty line. The worsening socio-economic trends are expected to further increase extreme poverty levels, Xinhua news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Syria ranks among the most food-insecure countries globally, with over half the population being severely food insecure.

A quarter of children under 5 face stunting in parts of Syria, which causes irreversible damage to their development, he said.

In the face of rising needs, humanitarian assistance was delivered to an average of 6.8 million people per month in 2021. This includes an average of 2.4 million people reached per month through the cross-border operation from Turkey, as authorised by the Security Council, said the spokesman.

The UN and partners are also ramping up efforts to support resilience and early-recovery programming to revitalize access to critical basic services alongside life-saving work.

This will require more funding and more access to reach more people in need, he said.