HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

The United Nations envoy mediating a resolution to the crisis in Syria warned that the latest round of talks was overshadowed by a substantial deterioration of the cessation of hostilities, and called on the leaders of the Russian Federation and United States to help salvage the “barely alive” pact.

In Aleppo, Syria, four-year-old Esraa and her brother Waleed, three, sit on the ground near a shelter for internally displaced persons. Photo: UNICEF/UN013175/Al-Issa

“What we need to do and to hear is that the cessation of hostilities is salvaged and […] is saved from a total collapse,” Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria, on 28 April 2016 told reporters following a briefing to the Security Council.

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Human Wrongs Watch

With hundreds of thousands of civilians killed, millions of people displaced and countless families torn apart, the UN relief chief on 28 April 2016 described the human toll and suffering in Syria as “sickening,” and said the global community should be “ashamed” that this is happening on its watch.

In Madaya, Syria, local community members help offload and distribute humanitarian aid supplies. Photo: WFP/Hussam Al Saleh

“It does not require me to say to each and every member of the Security Council, that the impact of five long years of conflict in Syria defies understanding, let alone its description,” Stephen O’Brien, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the 15-member body during a monthly humanitarian update.