Humanitarian chief deplores latest Syria airstrikes


Airstrikes that have reportedly caused scores of civilian casualties in the Syrian capital Damascus are unlawful, unacceptable and must stop, a top UN humanitarian chief said Monday.

Stephen O'Brien, who heads the UN's emergency relief agency OCHA, made his comments at the end of his first official visit to Syria.

More than 220,000 people have been killed in the four-year conflict which began as a popular uprising against President Bashar Al Assad.

Emergency UN agency chief Stephen O'Brien wrapped up his three-day visit to Syria amid reports of airstrikes in a besieged part of Damascus that left scores dead and hundreds injured.

O'Brien, who's the head of the UN's emergency relief agency OCHA, said that he was "horrified" by the total disrespect for civilian life.

And he appealed to "each and every part" to the four-year conflict to respect international humanitarian law, demanding that attacks on civilians "must stop".
In the old city of Homs in the west of the country, where almost every home has been destroyed, Stephen O'Brien said that all people wanted was peace.

The aid chief also spoke out against water cuts by non-state armed groups, calling them an "unacceptable weapon of war".

The cuts had left at least five million people without water for three days, OCHA said, while two million people in Aleppo had also suffered the same deprivation for 17 days.

During his visit the OCHA chief also met senior government officials where he reportedly emerged hopeful that "concrete steps" would be taken to strengthen humanitarian operations.


SOURCE: UN Radio