UN tells Syria: Ensure truce for aid convoy

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The UN humanitarian coordinator in Syria has appealed to the government to commit to a cease-fire in eastern Ghouta on Thursday to let in an aid convoy containing medical supplies that were stripped from a delivery on Monday.

Ali al-Za’tari, the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Syria, sent the letter to Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Tuesday, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

An aid convoy reached the besieged, rebel-held enclave near Damascus on Monday for the first time since the start of a massive government bombing campaign and assault to recapture it in mid-February.

It was only the second convoy so far in 2018 to reach the area, where the United Nations says 400,000 residents were running out of food and medicine even before the bombing campaign began.

Medical supplies were removed from Monday’s convoy while it was still being loaded, Za’atari wrote. Once it reached Ghouta, the convoy was unable to fully unload because military operations in the area had not stopped.

A Western diplomat in Geneva said of the hasty withdrawal: “It was a close call. There were 83 aid workers on board.”

Za’atari added that his and other cars and personal handbags belonging to humanitarian staff were searched, and the government had requested staff with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs be excluded.

All UN vehicles and OCHA staff should be allowed to enter the biggest eastern Ghouta town of Douma on Thursday with the medical supplies that were removed on Monday, and without their vehicles being subjected to inspection, he said.

The government should “commit to cease fire throughout the area of eastern Ghouta during the entry of the humanitarian convoy, and during its presence in the area.”

On February 24, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding a full 30-day cease-fire across all of Syria, but the government and its main ally Russia argue that it does not protect the rebel groups based in eastern Ghouta.

Russia has called for five-hour daily cease-fires each day in eastern Ghouta since early last week, but the Syrian government offensive to recapture the enclave has continued.

Meanwhile, the Russian military said late on Tuesday that it had helped evacuate 13 civilians from eastern Ghouta by putting them on returning trucks that had brought aid to the rebel-held area near Damascus.

The military said in a statement it had used drones to monitor the convoy’s progress and successfully head off what it called rebel provocations.

“We managed to evacuate 13 civilians, including five children, with the returning convoy,” the military said. “We were also ready to evacuate about 1,000 sick and wounded people, but the rebels did not give us the opportunity.”