Russia: Don’t blame Syria for chemical attack without visit UN says 80 percent of Yemeni children need humanitarian aid
Russia says the United States and its Western allies rushed to judgment and blamed the Syrian government for using sarin in an attack on an opposition-held town in Syria without ever visiting the site and ignoring two witnesses presented by Damascus.
It also criticized the report by the fact-finding mission from the chemical weapons watchdog that investigated the incident in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 that killed more than 90 people, calling it “very biased.”
A letter from Russia’s U.N. Mission to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council, which was circulated Wednesday, contains Russia’s assessment of the status of the investigation into the incident.
The attack sparked outrage around the world as photos and video of the aftermath, including quivering children dying on camera, were widely broadcast.
Three U.N agencies say nearly 80 percent of Yemeni children need immediate humanitarian assistance amid the collapse of the country’s health system in the face of the two-yearlong civil war. The heads of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and World Food Program said in a joint statement on Wednesday that 2 million Yemeni children are malnourished, making them vulnerable to cholera.
Yemen is facing the world’s worst cholera outbreak in years.
The agencies called on the international community to intensify its support for the Yemenis.
A two-year Saudi-led campaign against Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels has damaged infrastructure and caused medicine shortages in the Arab world’s poorest country.