In a briefing to the Security Council, the official, Stephen O’Brien, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said that while he welcomed Russia’s support last week for a 48-hour cease-fire in Aleppo – as he had proposed earlier in the month – there had been no assurances from other combatants.
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“What is happening in Aleppo today and throughout Syria over the last five years is an outrage against every moral fiber in our being as human beings, as fellow human beings, with every Syrian caught up in this unending cataclysm”. Brussels calls for an immediate halt of fighting in Aleppo to facilitate medical evacuations, resume deliveries of humanitarian aid and fix water and electricity infrastructure. Up to 2 million people on both sides do not have clean water after infrastructure was damaged in bombing. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and before the civil war began, the country’s commercial center.
As a result, O’Brien said, no convoys were dispatched in August, despite some successful, if limited, deliveries in July. In addition, fighting and administrative delays have contributed to not a single convoy moving so far this month.
“As the UN’s humanitarian chief, this callous carnage that is Syria has long since moved from the cynical to the sinful”.
In mid-August, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general, said that between 250,000 and 275,000 people were trapped in eastern Aleppo following the July closure of Castello Road amid heavy fighting in the area.
“Now is the moment, this instant, to put differences aside, come together as one and stop this humanitarian shame upon us all, once and for all”, O’Brien urged.
O’Brien warned that Aleppo might turn into “a humanitarian catastrophe” unless all parties agree to a humanitarian pause offered by Russian Federation last week. She urged Russian Federation to follow its unilateral declaration “with genuine steps to support regular and sustained access to Aleppo”.
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“Once this transition has begun, the European Union and its member states will be in a position to provide immediate support to Syria’s reconstruction and also to help the return of refugees and the internally displaced to their communities”. Sison said they are necessary because the people of Aleppo “need United Nations help now”, but that a more comprehensive arrangement that revives the collapsed nationwide cessation of hostilities is needed to guarantee wider aid access.
