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A United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy delivering aid packages in the rebel-held town of Nashabiyah in Eastern Ghouta for the first time in five years, on 30 July 2017. AFP/Amer Almohibany

Syria’s civilians have suffered tremendously through the country’s seven years of conflict. Now, as the Syrian government and its allies prepare to retake Damascus’s Eastern Ghouta suburbs, hundreds of thousands will be caught in the crossfire once more. The humanitarian corridors announced by Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu for Eastern Ghouta, and proposed for the Rukban camp on the border with Jordan further east, are unlikely to substantially mitigate that suffering.

To be sure, any means for civilians to safely and voluntarily escape the violence in besieged Eastern Ghouta is positive and welcome. But the corridor announced unilaterally by Russia and the Syrian government through the Wafideen camp lacks the sort of guarantees that would allow Ghouta’s nearly 400,000 residents to use it or other concerned parties, including UN Security Council members, to endorse it.…  Seguir leyendo »

2017 will mark the sixth anniversary of the Syrian conflict -- a war that has left nearly half a million dead and forced millions of others from their homes.

The new year brought a ceasefire brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey. But the ceasefire is serving as cover for "business as usual". The Syrian government continues to use illegal means of war to crush political opponents and citizens, forcing them to accept an uncertain and unjust "peace". But peace achieved by these means cannot, and will not, hold.

This should come as no surprise. Fundamental flaws are baked into this agreement.…  Seguir leyendo »

A girl plays amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Rai town in northern Aleppo province. (Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

With Russian and Syrian forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad’s regime rapidly closing in, the situation for those trapped in eastern Aleppo in the first week of December was growing grimmer by the hour. It was especially dire for the White Helmets, a Syrian first-responders group that had won international acclaim for its humanitarian work, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Assad regime held a different view, describing the group as rebels and terrorists.

On Dec. 8 at 3:30 p.m. in Boston, one of the first messages from the White Helmets to reach researchers at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative said that “three gas bombs have been dropped in the area within the last two hours and they [the White Helmets] feel they have less than 48 hours to evacuate before they are seized.”…  Seguir leyendo »

L'un des camions d'aide humanitaire touché par une frappe aérienne, mardi à Uram al-Kubra, près d'Alep. Photo Ammar Abdullah. Reuters

«En Syrie, apporter une aide humanitaire est parfois plus dangereux que de porter une arme», explique le représentant d’une association syrienne. Si le 19 septembre, un convoi de l’ONU a été attaqué pour la première fois, les humanitaires sont régulièrement pris pour cibles. Les structures médicales et les écoles sont bombardées, de même que les entrepôts et les lieux de distribution.

Quand le premier convoi d’aide a atteint la ville assiégée de Daraya en juin, de lourds bombardements ont eu lieu durant deux jours, empêchant les civils de se rendre aux points de distribution. «Notre rêve serait que les humanitaires syriens bénéficient d’une protection internationale», déclare l’un de nos partenaires comme s’il parlait d’une utopie et non du respect d’une obligation reconnue de droit international humanitaire.…  Seguir leyendo »

Rebels in Aleppo say they have broken the siege of the city, but have yet to establish a secure route for civilians. Government forces under President Bashar al-Assad deny they have been pushed out of the city. The battle for Aleppo may mark a military turning point, but for Aleppo's remaining residents, it marks only an intensification of a misery that seems to go unheeded by the international community.

No one is coming to save the Syrians. If President Obama did not act in 2013 after the chemical attacks in Ghouta, where children died of asphyxiation, testing his "red line", then he surely will not act now after footage of chemical attacks two weeks ago in Idlib showed fighters, allegedly poisoned by Assad's chlorine, gasping for breath.…  Seguir leyendo »

Save the Refugees on the Berm

For millions of Syrian civilians trapped for five years by a relentless war, mere lifesaving aid, let alone refuge, is out of reach. But for the 75,000 displaced people caught on Jordan’s desert frontier with Syria, salvation is only yards away. Unlike many of their fellow citizens, they can be saved. So why have they been effectively abandoned?

They are assembled in a kind of buffer zone on an inhospitable strip of land, much of it within Jordanian territory, just north of the official Jordanian border. But that border is closed, which prevents aid from reaching these desperate refugees and at the same time prevents them from seeking safety.…  Seguir leyendo »

On Feb. 3, the United Nations suspended talks between the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and representatives of the Syrian opposition. The Geneva talks, which were aimed at ending the five-year-old civil war, had bogged down in distrust and regional politics before they even got underway.

The UN mediator, Staffan de Mistura, hinted that the initial round of discussions collapsed because the Syrian regime refused to lift the sieges that are slowly starving hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Assad’s regime has been using starvation as a weapon — technically a war crime, when used against civilians — for the past four years.…  Seguir leyendo »

Syrians try to rescue people buried in collapsed buildings in Aleppo on 31 January 2016. Photo by Getty Images.

Support for Syria’s neighbouring states in tackling the long-term challenges posed by the spillover of the conflict is welcome. Yet, funding pledges for humanitarian support − like those at this week's donor conference in London − are being fundamentally undermined by developments on the battlefield and the fraying political situation in neighbouring countries. The breakdown of talks in Geneva indicates that the situation will get worse before it gets better.

Political progress difficult to see

The divide between the humanitarian and the political is painfully apparent in the contrast between the hope espoused by leaders at the London donor conference and the acrimony expressed by those at the talks in Geneva.…  Seguir leyendo »

Almost a year on from their dramatic seizure of Mosul, Iraq's second city, the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria continue to expand the frontiers of their stronghold in the Middle East.

The fall this month of Ramadi -- the last remaining government-held city in Iraq's largest province -- and the taking, 400 miles west, of Syria's Roman-era town of Palmyra, constitute not just important strategic gains for the group, but significant propaganda victories. Televised images of Palmyra's ancient ruins now abound, their fate seemingly hanging in the balance.

The rapid rise of ISIS has thus captured the world's attention, and we've seen a coalition of Western and Arab states make common cause with Iran to try to forcibly halt the jihadists' advance.…  Seguir leyendo »

As I prepare to leave the United Nations at the end of May, I am haunted by the crisis that has defined my tenure: the breathtakingly savage war in Syria, now in its fifth year.

At last month’s pledging conference in Kuwait, many countries promised millions of dollars for aid to Syrians in need. We are grateful for these funds, which mean humanitarian agencies can continue to deliver life-saving food, water, shelter and health care. But I still cannot believe that the world has looked on as this crisis and its devastating human consequences have unfolded. More than 220,000 people have been killed and about 8 million displaced.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Carnage of Barrel Bombs in Syria

Marwan was on the operating table when the lights blinked and fizzled out. I turned on the headlamp I wear for situations like these, but it flickered, indicating low batteries. The nurse to my left pulled her cellphone from her pocket and turned it on, creating the only light in the pitch-black basement. Others in the room followed suit with their phones, shining the devices at the wound and producing just enough light to allow me to finish repairing the little boy’s broken body.

Marwan had arrived at my field hospital, which was built underground to avoid bombardment, after losing his mother, sister and both of his legs in a barrel bomb attack late last year.…  Seguir leyendo »

Tras más de mil días de muerte y sufrimiento, dos importantes declaraciones públicas recientes muestran por qué la política para con Siria debe entrar en una nueva fase de intensidad y centrarse más. El mes pasado, el Presidente de los Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, al exponer su posición más amplia en materia de política exterior, habló de los tres males de Siria: tácticas militares brutales, la amenaza terrorista de la oposición y la necesidad de apoyar a los refugiados. Una semana antes, la Oficina de las Naciones Unidas de Coordinación de Asuntos Humanitarios comunicó detalles espantosos de la crisis de Siria en materia de asuntos humanitarios, incluidos ciudadanos víctimas del fuego de los dos bandos, continuos ataques gubernamentales con bombas de barril y escasez de alimentos y medicinas.…  Seguir leyendo »

Después de pasar tan sólo tres días con refugiados y trabajadores encargados de prestar la ayuda humanitaria en el Líbano y Turquía, el carácter apocalíptico de la crisis de Siria resulta más que evidente: más de 100.000 muertes, nueve millones de personas desplazadas, dos millones de niños sin poder ir a la escuela, enfermedades como las poliomielitis que reaparecen y los países vecinos que se esfuerzan para afrontar las oleadas de refugiados.

Infinidad de historias desgarradoras de maridos, esposas, hermanos e hijos perdidos, por no hablar de los hogares y los medios de vida destruidos, aportan una prueba angustiosa de cómo ha llegado la guerra civil de Siria a ser un conflicto regional (como lo indica el bombardeo de la embajada del Irán en Beirut).…  Seguir leyendo »

L'attaque à l'arme chimique dans la banlieue est de Damas (la Ghouta) a enclenché d'intenses négociations. Pendant ce temps, la population de cette région continue d'être victime de bombardements et d'un blocus sur les produits nécessaires à sa survie. Et l'aide humanitaire ne figure toujours pas à l'ordre du jour des négociations.

Le contraste est saisissant entre l'activité diplomatique de ces derniers jours sur la crise syrienne et l'absence d'initiatives visant à améliorer l'aide à la population dans son ensemble. L'usage d'armes de destruction massive en Syrie marque certes le franchissement d'un palier dans l'horreur dénoncée par l'ensemble des acteurs internationaux, quels que soient leurs préférences politiques.…  Seguir leyendo »

Imaginemos que alrededor de 18 millones de hombres, mujeres y niños británicos han tenido que dejar sus hogares como consecuencia de la guerra civil que desgarra su país desde hace dos años. Que han muerto aproximadamente 280.000 personas y hay muchos más heridos. Esa es, en términos proporcionales, la dimensión de la tragedia siria. Y no parece que vaya a acabar pronto.

The Guardian publicó el jueves una serie de historias sobre las vidas de las personas más afectadas por este desastre. Unas historias que resultan más conmovedoras que cualquier estadística. Pero las cifras también son elocuentes. Cada día salen de Siria alrededor de 6.000 refugiados, una tremenda carga para los recursos de la ayuda humanitaria internacional y un factor de desestabilización para los países vecinos.…  Seguir leyendo »

La guerra civil siria está provocando una crisis humanitaria como no la recuerdan ni los trabajadores humanitarios más experimentados del mundo. Los dirigentes de las Naciones Unidas están diciendo que ya basta y reclamando una intervención urgente de la comunidad internacional. Espero que sean escuchados, pero me temo que estamos caminando como sonámbulos hacia un desastre no solo para el propio pueblo sirio, sino también para el Oriente Medio y el mundo entero.

Hemos alcanzado el punto en que la situación de emergencia humanitaria supera la capacidad de enfrentarse a ella. La comunidad internacional está paralizada por el bloqueo político. En lugar de verse las pruebas de la catástrofe como un imperativo para actuar políticamente, parece ser que sobre nosotros, la comunidad humanitaria, está recayendo el peso de «gestionar el conflicto» lo mejor que podamos.…  Seguir leyendo »

Dans une tribune récemment publiée par le quotidien britannique Guardian, Peter Krähenbühl, le directeur des opérations du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR), conteste l’existence d’un déséquilibre dans la répartition de l’aide humanitaire internationale en Syrie, au détriment des populations vivant en zone rebelle. Estimant que seule l’assistance distribuée depuis Damas est susceptible de venir en aide au plus grand nombre, le CICR récuse l’urgence d’acheminer directement de l’aide en territoire rebelle à partir des pays voisins.

La position du CICR repose à notre sens sur une description contestable des enjeux et contraintes opérationnelles en Syrie. En effet, depuis le mois de juillet 2012, les groupes armés rebelles ont consolidé leur emprise dans la grande majorité des zones rurales situées au nord et à l’est du pays, s’emparant notamment de la plupart des postes-frontières avec la Turquie.…  Seguir leyendo »