ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Wednesday marks the sixth anniversary of the start of the civil war in Syria, a war that has created inhumanity is how it was described by the UN’s refugee chief.
According to UN figures, the war has created 4.9 million refugees, 6.3 million internally displaced, and millions more living in daily fear. An estimated at least 400,000 have been killed.
“Syria is really at a crossroads,” Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated in a public message. “Unless drastic measures are taken to shore up peace and security, the situation will simply worsen.”
On Tuesday, the ICRC delivered aid to four locations in Syria, the first aid received in Zabadani, Foua, Kefraya, and Madaya in four months. Children in Madaya barely leave their homes, “They spend most of their time in underground shelters, scared for their lives,” the Syrian branch of ICRC tweeted.
“Words cannot describe the suffering we witnessed.”
The UN’s special envoy for Syria urged the acceleration of negotiations aimed at ending the war. “There is no way that we should be accepting the fact that the sixth anniversary becomes the seventh,” he told Reuters. “It’s becoming one of the longest and most cruel wars of recent years. That’s why there is a need for an acceleration of any type of negotiations – in Astana, in Geneva, in New York, wherever.”
The opposition refused to attend talks this week in Astana, accusing the regime of violating a fragile ceasefire.
Damascus’ representative at the talks, Bashar al-Jaafari, said his country is ready to discuss all issues in order to end terrorism in Syria and save lives, state-run media Sana reported.
The next round of UN-sponsored talks expected to take place later this month in Geneva will likely still not see direct discussions between opposing parties, Mistura said, describing them as “proximity talks.”
Amnesty International called on the international community to take “immediate action” to bring justice to the victims of the war. “Six harrowing years on, there is no excuse for allowing the horrific crimes under international law that are being committed in Syria to go unpunished,” Amnesty’s director of campaigns in its Beirut office, Samah Hadid, said in a published statement.
Multiple parties in the conflict have been accused of war crimes including deliberate targeting of civilians.
According to UN figures, the war has created 4.9 million refugees, 6.3 million internally displaced, and millions more living in daily fear. An estimated at least 400,000 have been killed.
“Syria is really at a crossroads,” Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated in a public message. “Unless drastic measures are taken to shore up peace and security, the situation will simply worsen.”
On Tuesday, the ICRC delivered aid to four locations in Syria, the first aid received in Zabadani, Foua, Kefraya, and Madaya in four months. Children in Madaya barely leave their homes, “They spend most of their time in underground shelters, scared for their lives,” the Syrian branch of ICRC tweeted.
“Words cannot describe the suffering we witnessed.”
The UN’s special envoy for Syria urged the acceleration of negotiations aimed at ending the war. “There is no way that we should be accepting the fact that the sixth anniversary becomes the seventh,” he told Reuters. “It’s becoming one of the longest and most cruel wars of recent years. That’s why there is a need for an acceleration of any type of negotiations – in Astana, in Geneva, in New York, wherever.”
The opposition refused to attend talks this week in Astana, accusing the regime of violating a fragile ceasefire.
Damascus’ representative at the talks, Bashar al-Jaafari, said his country is ready to discuss all issues in order to end terrorism in Syria and save lives, state-run media Sana reported.
The next round of UN-sponsored talks expected to take place later this month in Geneva will likely still not see direct discussions between opposing parties, Mistura said, describing them as “proximity talks.”
Amnesty International called on the international community to take “immediate action” to bring justice to the victims of the war. “Six harrowing years on, there is no excuse for allowing the horrific crimes under international law that are being committed in Syria to go unpunished,” Amnesty’s director of campaigns in its Beirut office, Samah Hadid, said in a published statement.
Multiple parties in the conflict have been accused of war crimes including deliberate targeting of civilians.
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