The US State Department called on Russia to exert pressure on the Assad regime to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta. Residents trapped inside have been suffering severe shortages of food and medicine resulting from the years-long siege the Assad regime impose on the rebel-held area.
“The situation in east Ghouta, Syria is critical. Russia must push the Assad regime to allow life-saving medicine, food, and evacuations,” US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in comments she posted on Twitter on Friday.
“Don’t play politics with starving families- prove a ceasefire exists, end the violence, and allow unfettered UN access now,” Nauert added.
Mark Lowcock, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, on Wednesday said that “Syria remains the world’s largest and most dynamic displacement crisis, with half of all Syrians displaced from their homes.”
The World Food Program (WFP) has announced that the Syrian crisis forced more than 10 million Syrians to live on the brink of hunger as the Assad regime forces continue to bomb and impose blockade on many areas across Syria.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, WFP spokesperson Bettina Luescher affirmed that millions of the Syrian people, following seven years of the crisis, are currently living fierce conditions and suffering the unemployment, collapse of the Syrian currency and insecurity.
Luescher noted that the humanitarian situation in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta continue to deteriorate as the area has been subject to crippling siege by regime forces for around four years.
Luescher added that about three million of the Syrian people are living in the besieged and hard-to-reach areas and struggling to survive.
The WFP called upon parties the conflict in Syria to allow access of humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people wherever they are, with no conditions or obstacles in addition to respecting the international humanitarian and human rights laws. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
