Eastern Ghouta crisis gets worse as ceasefire fails

BRITAIN yesterday called for an urgent meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on the deteriorating situation in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, after ceasefires failed to stem the violence.

Julian Braithwaite, the UK ambassador, said that he would seek the adoption of a resolution on a 30-day ceasefire that was unanimously passed last week but had yet to take effect.

Delegates traded blame at a heated meeting on Wednesday, where the UN’S humanitarian chief chastised the council over the stalled ceasefire.

“When will your resolution be implemented?” Mark Lowcock asked the meeting. “Unless this changes we will soon see even more people dying from starvation and disease than from the bombing and the shelling.”

Moscow unilaterally declared its own, less-ambitious five-hour daily “humanitarian pause” in Eastern Ghouta, but was ignored by even its ally, the Syrian government.

Jan Egeland, head of the UN humanitarian taskforce in Syria, said the resolution had done little to improve the situation for some 400,000 residents.