Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

UN plans to deliver aid to Ghouta today

minus
plus

DAMASCUS: The United Nations said it plans to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance on Monday to Syrians besieged in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.


A convoy that would enter the enclave would consist of “46 truckloads of health and nutrition supplies, along with food for 27,500 people in need”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said on Sunday in a statement.


Eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 residents have lived under government siege since 2013, facing severe shortages in food and medicine.


Ali al Zaatari, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Syria who will be leading Monday’s operation, said: “We hope that the convoy may proceed as planned and will be followed by other convoys.”


“Our teams on the ground are ready to do all that is needed to make this happen,” Zaatari added.


Russia-backed Syrian forces have since February 18 killed more than 640 civilians — including over 150 children — in a ferocious bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, one of the armed opposition’s last strongholds in the country.


Fighting on the ground has intensified, with government forces reportedly advancing on several fronts since last Thursday and are said to have recaptured two areas in the east and southeast of the enclave.


The clashes between regime forces and rebels come after Russia last Tuesday started a daily five-hour “humanitarian pause”.


OCHA said the aid would be taken in to Eastern Ghouta by the UN and its partners, after they “received approval to deliver assistance for 70,000 people in need in the besieged enclave”.


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon