http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/world/valerie-amos-top-un-relief-official-to-step-down.html 2014-11-26 19:53:23 Valerie Amos, Top U.N. Relief Official, to Step Down Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the departure of Ms. Amos, who has most notably been the face of United Nations relief for civilians in Syria. === Valerie Amos, the top relief official at the In a brief “Ms. Amos has tirelessly advocated for people around the world affected by disaster and conflict,” Mr. Ban said in his statement. Ms. Amos, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, has most notably been the face of the United Nations relief efforts for civilians in the Syrian civil war, now nearly four years old. She has repeatedly implored the Syrian government, with mixed results, to permit relief convoys into rebel-held areas. She supported a Security Council resolution approved in July that authorized, for the first time, the delivery of aid across The resignation announcement came one day after Ms. Amos A former British cabinet minister, Ms. Amos took the United Nations position in 2010, about a year before the Syria conflict began. Syria has preoccupied much of her time, adding to the management of relief efforts like the 2013 typhoon disaster in the Philippines and a variety of humanitarian crises in Africa, including the conflict in South Sudan and the basic collapse of authority in the Central African Republic.