Syria facing ‘massacre’ as Assad regime and Russian forces pound civilian camps in Idlib, says UN
SYRIA is facing a massacre on a scale never seen before unless international action is taken to restrain the regime, the UN has warned. Government forces, backed by Russian allies, are currently moving into the northwestern city of Idlib, which contains the last rebel fighters opposing the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. The offensive, which […]
SYRIA is facing a massacre on a scale never seen before unless international action is taken to restrain the regime, the UN has warned.
Government forces, backed by Russian allies, are currently moving into the northwestern city of Idlib, which contains the last rebel fighters opposing the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
The offensive, which began on December 1, has seen heavy shelling of civilian areas and displaced around 900,000 people.
It comes at the end of a nine-year civil war that began when protests that sprang up as part of the Arab Springs in 2011 were violently suppressed by government forces.
In an interview with Sky News, UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Mark Cutts warned of the mass loss of innocent life if the offensive is allowed to continue.
“There are about a million displaced people living in camps and makeshift shelters in that area and if the shelling and airstrikes move any further into that area we’re going to see a bloodbath,” he said.
“We’re going to see a massacre on a scale that has never been seen in this entire war.
“I had men and women in this meeting crying.
“The translator broke down into tears explaining what is going on in the area. They are absolutely desperate.”
‘WE NEED ACTION’
The UN has said that much of Idlib’s population is already in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, with mass shortages of food, shelter, and medicine.
Many of the aid agencies that operated in Syria during the earlier stages of the war have been forced to withdraw to ensure the safety of their staff.
Adding to the extreme conditions are the freezing temperatures in Syria at this time of year.
An influx of displaced people to the city throughout the course of the war has also doubled Idlib’s population to around three million, one million of them children.
Cutts continued: “If you compare this with the Rohingya crisis in 2017, there were 700,000 people that moved at one time, and the whole world was outraged by what was happening there.
“What is happening here is on a scale that we’ve not seen during the entire the Syrian war that’s gone on for nine years now.
“We need political action to take place at the highest level in the Security Council to stop this happening.”
Speaking yesterday, Turkish president Recep Erdogan said it was “only a matter of time” before Turkish forces launched an operation to halt the assault and protect civilians in the area.
Turkey shares much of its southern border with Syria, and Erdogan said he intended to make the border region a safe one “at any cost”.
MOST READ IN WORLD NEWS
The Syrian and Russian governments have so far ignored his calls to end the assault and withdraw to previously-agreed ceasefire lines.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has also called for a ceasefire.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.