Besieged Syrian civilians yesterday waited desperately for aid as relief convoys remained on hold despite a significant drop in violence under a ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow.
The truce that began at sundown on Monday is part of the latest bid to end a five-year conflict that has killed more than 300,000 people.
The US-Russian deal aims to end fighting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists and a wide range of rebels, but excludes militant forces such as the Islamic State (IS) group.
Photo: EPA
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday hailed the truce for bringing about “a significant drop in violence” despite isolated incidents.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said it had recorded no deaths in the country since the truce took effect.
However, there appeared to be no progress on another key element of the agreement: unhindered aid access throughout the country, particularly to areas like rebel-held east Aleppo.
Millions of Syrians are in desperate need of assistance, especially in besieged and hard-to-reach areas with severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
Aleppo, Syria’s second city, is a particular focus after weeks of heavy fighting. The eastern neighborhoods where about 250,000 people live have been under government siege for most of the past two months.
UN aid trucks are waiting north of Aleppo in Turkey, but a Syrian security source said yesterday that the regime had yet to withdraw its forces from the key Castello Road running to the Turkish border.
The demilitarization of the road, to allow for unimpeded aid deliveries and civilian movement, is a key plank of the US-Russian deal.
David Swanson, the spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, said the agency had 20 trucks loaded with a month’s worth of food rations for 40,000 people waiting on the border.
“The main issue at this point is ensuring all parties to the conflict are on the same page... This is a very complex environment and we need security guarantees,” he said.
Swanson said that it was unlikely security concerns would be resolved within the coming hours, allowing the convoys to move. “Based on what we’re hearing from the ground, it’s not likely to happen today.”
Residents in Aleppo have welcomed the lull in the fighting that has ravaged Syria, displacing more than half the population and leaving former economic powerhouse Aleppo divided and destroyed.
However, they expressed frustration about the delay in promised aid to eastern districts.
“The truce is good, but it’s not enough. We want food to come in,” said Abu Jamil, a resident of the Ansari neighborhood in the besieged east.
“The situation is still bad as the markets are empty,” the 55-year-old said.
The deal calls for the truce to be renewed every 48 hours, and for Washington and Moscow to begin unprecedented joint targeting of militants such as IS and former al-Qaeda affiliate the Fateh al-Sham Front if the ceasefire lasts a week.
Initially, the deal allows the Syrian air force to continue strikes in areas where IS and Fateh al-Sham, previously known as the al-Nusra Front, are present.
Once the joint Russian-US targeting begins, government warplanes “will no longer be able to fly in any areas of Syria where there is opposition or al-Nusra Front presence,” a senior US administration official said on Tuesday.
So far, only minor incidents have been reported, with the Russian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday saying that it had recorded 23 rebel violations.
The observatory reported minor violations by both sides, but no casualties.
“It is very positive,” observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. “If things continue on this path it will be a positive development in protecting Syrian civilians from killing, fighting and displacement.”
However, there remains deep skepticism about whether the truce will hold.
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