Russian Federation announced Wednesday there would be daily three-hour ceasefires in Syria’s Aleppo starting Thursday to allow humanitarian convoys to enter the city safely, a proposal which the United Nations said it would consider as more than 250,000 people are trapped in the rebel-held eastern part of the city, the country’s most populous before the war.
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According to ABC News, The United Nations called for an immediate 48-hour ceasefire in order for humanitarian aid to be sent in, and for water and electrical infrastructure to be repaired.
“Children and families in Aleppo are facing a catastrophic situation”, said Hanaa Singer, Unicef’s representative in Syria.
“Getting clean water running again can not wait for the fighting to stop. Children’s lives are in serious danger”, she added. Fix work was completed on August 4, but intensified fighting then further damaged the lines.
The water pumps in Aleppo, Syria, are no longer getting power, leaving 2 million people without running water – and at risk of coming under a full siege. “This is the only way people all over the city can have safe drinking water”.
Two million civilians are thought to be trapped in Syria’s northern capital without access to running water or electricity.
As ever the civilians in Aleppo are paying the greatest toll.
The on-going conflict between the rebels and the Syrian government lead to the destruction of the water supply network.
As government warplanes targeted rebel-held parts of the city, the United Nations relief wing warned that two million people trapped by the fighting were in even greater danger because of rising temperatures and diminishing medical supplies in the area. Key areas they captured include the military college and the southern town of al-Ramuseh.
Aleppo has been divided between a rebel-held east and regime-controlled west since fighting erupted in mid-2012. Many observers believe that whoever controls Aleppo will gain the upper hand in any potential settlement in Syria.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his country was open to the idea of the pauses but that it would not mean a halt in fighting “terrorists” a term Russian and Syria use to refer to almost all the forces aligned against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that tracks the civil war in Syria, also reported that government barrel bombs struck the neighborhood.
Residents in government-held districts say oil and food are now being brought in under cover of night via the same hazardous route near the front line that was previously used by rebels.
But an AFP correspondent in the eastern districts said trucks carrying food and other products were unable to enter the city Thursday because of intense bombardment.
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Jaish al-Fateh drove the army and its allies a year ago from Idlib province, southwest of Aleppo, before the Russian intervention in Syria turned the tide in Assad’s favor.
