‘Aleppo sliding into unseen humanitarian catastrophe’
100,000 children are trapped in city’s east, UN envoy says
NEW YORK // East Aleppo has descended into a humanitarian catastrophe unlike any seen so far in five years of war in Syria, the United Nations has warned.
“Let me be clear: east Aleppo this minute is not at the edge of the precipice,” Stephen O’Brien, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs told the Security Council.
“It is well into its terrible descent into the pitiless and mer- ciless abyss of a humanitarian catastrophe unlike any we have witnessed in Syria.”
The number of people killed since September 22, when the ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia broke down, stands at 320 civilians, of which 100 were children. The number of people living under siege in Syria has grown from 586,200 to 861,200.
More than 100,000 children are trapped in east Aleppo alone, which is held by rebels opposed to the regime of president Bashar Al Assad. The failure of all diplomatic efforts at the UN general assembly last week had only increased the brutality on the ground.
Mr O’Brien said it was time to “place the blame”“and he did so – on some of those sitting in the security council meeting. He also warned that evidence was being collected of the atrocities being committed in Aleppo so that “one day there will be no hiding place” for those perpetrating war crimes.
Making an impassioned appeal for action, Mr O’Brien added, “Syria is bleeding. Its citizens are dying. We all hear their cry for help.”
Yesterday, a bomb destroyed the last remaining bakery serving the 2,000 citizens of Anadan, a town on the northern fringes of Aleppo. A video shot by activist Adnan Medlej showed the moment the bakery was hit, shortly after workers had distributed bread around the town and surrounding villages.
Meanwhile, Germany’s foreign ministry announced that a German woman who was kidnapped in Syria while she was pregnant has been set free along with the baby boy she gave birth to while in captivity.
German media have identified her as Janina Findeisen, 27, a freelance journalist. She was allegedly kidnapped by the Al Nusra front in October last year and gave birth in December.