'Merciless abyss' of Aleppo

Photo: The Canadian Press

Syrian government forces continued their push into rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Thursday as international officials issued dire warnings of an ongoing humanitarian disaster in Syria's largest city.

United Nations humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council that conditions in eastern Aleppo, which is besieged and assaulted on all sides by government forces, had descended into the "merciless abyss of humanitarian catastrophe."

Speaking to the Security Council via video link from Geneva, O'Brien painted a grim picture of the conditions in the war-wracked eastern part of the city, where at least 320 civilians including 100 children have been killed in the past week. An additional 765 have been wounded.

O'Brien's report noted that the U.N. now calculates that 861,200 Syrians are trapped in sieges — a nearly 50 per cent increase from the last estimate of 586,200. The new figure reflects the government's protracted blockade around eastern Aleppo, where an estimated 250,000 people or more live.

Most of the besieged citizens, divided across at least 18 locations around the country, are trapped by government forces, and international observers are beginning to accuse both Damascus and its close ally Moscow of war crimes.

The U.N. embarked on an ambitious plan early this year to establish regular humanitarian access to Syrians living under various sieges but was reportedly stymied by the government as well as a restrictive covenant between rebels and the government to limit assistance to 60,000 of the most distressed, divided among four towns. At that time, a total of 487,000 Syrians were estimated to be living under siege.

O'Brien said certain Security Council members bore responsibility for global inaction on Syria and ended his address saying it was time to "place the blame."

In Aleppo, rescue crews were working for the third straight day to clear the rubble and search for survivors of presumed Russian or Syrian government airstrikes on the eastern al-Shaar and al-Mashhad neighbourhoods that flattened residential buildings and killed at least 23 civilians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Germany and Turkey condemned what they called "blatant breaches of international humanitarian law" and renewed calls for a cease-fire.