Syria: UN chiefs issue impassioned plea to save besieged civilians
April 24, 2014: Calling urgently on Syrian authorities and the opposition to allow
aid access, end siege warfare and halt the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, the
top United Nations humanitarian officials on Wednesday also issued a strong challenge
to “those with the responsibility, power and influence” to find the courage to re-energize
a thus-far failed diplomatic push to end the brutal three-year conflict.
“If
the civilians of Syria have not given up, how can the world give up on its efforts
to save them – and save Syria?” said a joint statement by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator
Valerie Amos; Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF);
Antonio Guterres at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR); Margaret Chan of the UN World Health
Organization (WHO) and Ertharin Cousin of the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
The
five UN officials noted that an urgent appeal issued a year ago on behalf of millions
of people “has gone largely unanswered. The war escalates in many areas. The humanitarian
situation deteriorates day after day,” they said, adding that for the civilians remaining
in cities experiencing heavy fighting, such as Aleppo and the Old City of Homs, “the
worst days seem yet to come.”
More than 9.3 million people are affected by
the crisis, now in its fourth year, with more than 2.4 million Syrian refugees registered
in the region, according to the latest UN figures. “All too often, humanitarian access
to those in need is being denied by all sides. Aerial bombardment, rockets, mortars
and other indiscriminate attacks slaughter innocent men, women, and children,” the
UN senior officials said in reference to some 3.5 million people living in areas under
siege or unable to be reached with humanitarian assistance.
Armed groups and
forces are blocking key roads, including the road from Damascus to Aleppo, where at
least one million of the estimated 2.5 million population in need of urgent humanitarian
assistance. The city is now surrounded on all sides, according to the UN, impacting
all facets of daily life – with scarce medical supplies administered by only 40 doctors
where there once had been more than 2,000. One-third of the country’s water treatment
plants no longer function and 60 per cent of its health centres destroyed. Aid agencies,
working closely with international and national non-governmental organizations, are
doing all they can despite danger to staff on the ground, the UN chiefs stressed,
but it is not sufficient.
“If we are to do more, to reach and help more people,
those engaged in this horrific conflict, and those with influence over them, must
do more,” they urged. The senior UN officials called on all parties to “enable unconditional
humanitarian access to all people in need, using all available routes either across
lines inside Syria or across its borders.”
Those sealing off cities are urged
to lift the sieges imposed on civilians, including in Aleppo, the Old City of Homs
and Yarmouk as well as Eastern Ghouta, Moadamiyet al-Sham, Nubl and Zahra. The UN
chiefs also called for an end to the “indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians
by the Government and opposition groups” and a stop to all other violations of international
humanitarian law.