UN relief official: Civilians in Syria’s Shia towns need support as humanitarian catastrophe looms

A senior United Nations relief official has today called on all parties to come to an agreement and allow immediate and unfettered humanitarian access to more than 60,000 civilians trapped in the Syrian towns of Al-Fu’ah and Kafraya.

A senior United Nations relief official has today called on all parties to come to an agreement and allow immediate and unfettered humanitarian access to more than 60,000 civilians trapped in the Syrian towns of Al-Fu’ah and Kafraya.

“The unfair and totally unjustified besiegement is compounded by the terrorists, which makes humanitarian access prone to painstaking negotiations that are not based on humanitarian principles,” Ali Al-Za’tari, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, said in a news release.

Al-Za’tari stressed that the situation is a looming humanitarian catastrophe and called on all those directly involved forces and all parties which have influence on them to convince them to allow urgent humanitarian assistance, including medical evacuations, to take place without delay.

The Shia towns have been besieged since the beginning of the so-called Syrian revolution, which left the towns with no access to food, medical treatment, and fuel to operate any life sustaining machines.