Syria: ICRC President calls for increased humanitarian action

On Wednesday 11 September  ICRC   President Peter Maurer called on the international community to work together to ensure that assistance reaches  people in dire need in Syria.  He said that while diplomatic discussions were taking place around chemical weapons,  fighting in Syria was intensifying, and the suffering of the Syrian people needed urgent attention.  

The ICRC needs  immediate urgent access as well as rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for people in sealed off areas, mainly Eastern Ghouta, the old city of Homs, Yarmouk and Moadamiyah.

00 00 “While diplomatic  efforts are ongoing,  fighting is also going on and has even intensified  over the last weeks in Syria.  People are dying , people are suffering because of lack of medical care, because of lack of food, because of lack of wate. We are very concerned that the war is spreading and the impact of the Syrian population is more serious than ever.

00 30 “We are able to reach certain people in Syria, certain places in Syria, we have about 160 people, we are working with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent on the ground but what we are doing is by far not enough in order to reach the needs of the people and to fill the gap between what we are able to do and what it is necessary to do, given the impact of warfare at the present moment. 

01 02 “We certainly need to negotiate for access to all the arms bearers in Syria but we also need the attention, the diplomatic and political attention from the international community so that each and every one who has an influence on one side or another in Syria is supporting  neutral and impartial humanitarian actors like the ICRC and others, so that we can do the job we are supposed to do – deliver humanitarian aid to people in need.