Syria, Nuncio: humanitarian emergency unacceptable

(Vatican Radio) The United States is investigating claims that chlorine gas was used in a Syrian town some 200km north of the capital, Damascus. Both government and rebel forces reported the use of chlorine earlier this month, each side blaming the other. Dozens of people were reportedly injured in the incident. Listen to our report:

Chemical weapons have been used before in Syria's 3-year-old civil war, which has claimed the lives of more than 150 thousand people and driven millions of others from their homes.

The humanitarian situation in Syria and in the refugee camps in neighbouring countries continues to deteriorate.

Speaking to Vatican Radio on Easter Monday, the Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, Archbsihop Mario Zenari said that, in the Yarmouk district of Damascus, a neighbourhood of some 18 thousand people, in which the Nunciature is located, and in many other places as well, there are many people already living in conditions of starvation, and many more near starvation. “This is something we cannot accept,” he said, “this is something the international community cannot accept.” The Nuncio went on to say, “Aid is ready: [it is] there at the gates of these villages and neighbourhoods, and because of a lack of security, humanitarian agencies are unable to enter.”

Pope Francis has appealed repeatedly for an end to violence in Syria and a return to good-faith negotiations to find a permanent solution to the conflict.

His most recent appeal came in his Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi address, in which he prayed, “that all those suffering the effects of the conflict can receive needed humanitarian aid and that neither side will again use deadly force, especially against the defenseless civil population, but instead boldly negotiate the peace long awaited and long overdue.”