Syria accepts Jordanian Zaatari as new UN aid envoy

Syria on Wednesday accepted the accreditation of Jordanian national Ali al-Zaatari as the new UN envoy tasked with overseeing the struggling humanitarian effort in the war-torn country.

Zaatari arrived in Damascus at the weekend and formally began work on Tuesday as the UN's new humanitarian relief coordinator in Syria, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

The former UN deputy envoy for Libya and for Sudan has also worked in Syria as the UN Development Programme's resident representative from 2004 to 2007.

Zaatari will replace Yacoub al-Hillo of Sudan, who was the aid coordinator since 2013 and who was recently appointed to be UN deputy envoy to Liberia.

Now in its sixth year, the Syrian conflict has driven more than 4.8 million refugees to neighbouring countries and hundreds of thousands to Europe, as well as displacing 6.6 million people inside Syria, according to UN estimates.

The conflict has also left at least 13.5 million Syrians in need of humanitarian aid, including six million children.

The huge UN aid effort has been struggling to reach 5.5 million people living in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 600,000 Syrians living under siege in the war.

Well over 250,000 people are believed to have died and much of the country's infrastructure has now been ruined.