translated from Spanish: UN warns risk of humanitarian catastrophe in Syria

Two senior UN officials sounded the alarm on Friday during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the risk of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Syrian province of Idlib if the fighting continues, which intensified since the end of April .” We call on all parties to cease hostilities, “said US Rosemary DiCarlo, United Nations deputy secretary General for Political Affairs. “We are facing a risk of humanitarian catastrophe,” he warned during this session, the second in a week dedicated to the situation in Idlib, in northwestern Syria. On May 10, a first sitting, behind closed doors, ended with the Moscow opposition, ally of Damascus, to the Approval of a common Council position to push for cessation of fighting. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, British Mark Lowcock, denounced the “terrifying escalation” of violence with more and more barrels of air-launched explosives. It also evoked a “humanitarian nightmare.” About 80,000 people have nowhere to go “and” take refuge in the fields or under the trees, “he said.
Lowcock said he was not able to say who is responsible for the bombing. Some of them “are clearly organized by people with access to sophisticated weapons, including a modern air force and precision and intelligent weapons,” he said. Since April 28, “18 medical facilities have been reached” by the attacks, in violation of international law, “said Lowcock.
“Neither the Syrian Army nor the Russian army target civilians or civilian facilities,” the Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, reacted. “Our goals are the terrorists” and “we refute all allegations of violation of international humanitarian law,” he said. There is no random attack on the civilian population, “said Syrian couple Bashar Ja’afari. In its intervention, the United States evoked its availability of “react” in the case of use of chemical weapons in Idlib. The Turkish ambassador, Feridun Sinirlioglu, whose country is coguarantor together with Russia and Iran of a “demilitarized zone” and a ceasefire in the province, He also rejected the argument of a counter-terrorism struggle. “A catastrophe is looming on the horizon” and “the Syrian regime has a direct target for civilians, schools and hospitals,” he denounced. Syrian forces and their Russian allies have increased attacks in the Idlib region since the end of April, making fear of a possible imminent offensive to take control of the latter enclave of jihadi groups. The Syrian and Russian attacks are directed against the territories controlled by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS, a Syrian exrama of Al Qaeda) and other jihadist groups. Nearly three million people live in the province of Idlib, including one million children.



Original source in Spanish