Aid Efforts in Besieged Syria Are ‘Getting Nowhere,’ UN Warns
- U.S. officials say Russia is complicit in Assad’s crimes
- Syrian opposition insists on UN role in settlement talks
Members of civil defense carry out a search and rescue operation after an airstrike at a marketplace in the de-escalation zone of Eriha district of Idlib, Syria on January 30, 2018.
Photographer: Mohamed Waleed Alrashed/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
As Syria’s seven-year civil war drags on, no medical or food supplies have reached besieged populations in the country since November and “humanitarian diplomacy seems to be totally impotent,” according to a top UN official.
Amid renewed fighting between Turkey and U.S.-allied Kurdish militias in northern Syria, United Nations Special Adviser Jan Egeland said some 2.9 million people are estimated to have been displaced in 2017, at a rate of almost 240,000 per month, and he called on Russia, Turkey and Iran to “deescalate” the crisis.