Renewed fighting last week led by the terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other armed factions has engulfed parts of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama, destabilising frontlines that had remained unchanged since 2020. UN human rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva of “a number of extremely...
The alarm comes amid a sharp escalation in fighting in the Aleppo Governorate, spreading to parts of Idleb and Hama governorates and leaving the situation volatile and unpredictable. In a statement on Sunday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen expressed grave concerns over the dramatic shift in frontlines,...
A Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) volunteer was among multiple civilians killed in the incident, OCHA said in a news release. The attack also damaged several SARC ambulances and other humanitarian objects and left two bridges impassable. “As a result, all humanitarian operations at border crossings [between Syria and Lebanon]...
The trucks are carrying food and nutrition supplies for about 12,500 people in the striken camp, and the agency said it was determined to provide the life-saving aid “safely and quickly”, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, briefing journalists in New York. “WFP underscores that the Adre corridor is a vital...
“Never in modern history have so many people faced starvation and famine as in Sudan today,” the UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts said. Zamzam camp in North Darfur, home to half a million IDPs, faces some of the direst conditions. Other IDP camps in El Fasher are also at risk...
Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Geir Pedersen expressed grave concern over the mounting violence and its cascading impact on Syria, which has been embroiled in civil conflict – later drawing in outside forces – since 2011. He highlighted an attack earlier in the day on a vehicle at...
After over a decade of brutal fighting, the Commission Chair, Paulo Pinheiro, said that deadly dynamics are causing new waves of hostilities. “The recent direct fighting in northeast Syria around Deir-ez-Zor between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the one hand and Arab tribes, Government forces and Iran-backed militia...
Briefing ambassadors at the Security Council, Geir Pedersen, UN Special Envoy for Syria, noted that though there have been some diplomatic breakthroughs none led to tangible changes on the ground for civilians. He also raised the alarm over the impact on the region of the devastating Israel-Palestine crisis. On top...
Najat Rochdi, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, told ambassadors at the Security Council that Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus airport this weekend, following several other airstrikes and artillery fire on locations across the country, reportedly killing one civilian airport worker. She added that the airstrikes coincided with reports of rocket...
That’s the message from the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, who said on Monday that perpetrators are mostly, but not exclusively, partners or ex-partners, and often escape accountability “due to a lack of proper investigation”. A 2022 report from the UN Office on Drugs...
In its latest report, the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR) body found that attacks on civilians, escalating fighting, economic decline and human rights violations persist, despite the country’s re-admission to the League of Arab States. The continued war in Syria is a “monument to the failure of diplomacy” said Inquiry...
For the next six months, the Bab al-Hawa border crossing will be accessible and allow much-needed assistance to reach millions of people in northwest Syria. Bab al-Hawa has been used since 2014, when the UN Security Council authorized cross-border relief deliveries “across conflict lines”. Around 85 per cent of aid...