Another gory chapter of Syrian conflict plays out in just a fortnight – around 400 massacred including 200 children, thousands maimed and injured, hospitals eliminated, reports of barrel bombs and all sorts of ammunition on civilian areas.
But that is not all.
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria has warned that the historic city may be totally devastated – especially rebel-held parts – by the end of the year.
Thousands more dead.
“This is what you, we, the world, will be seeing when we [are] trying to celebrate Christmas or the end of the year, if this continues at this rate, unimpeded, [it could be] Homs multiplied by 50,” Staffan de Mistura said in Geneva.
A UN statement says the envoy also made a specific call on the Al-Nusra Front fighters, estimated to number about one thousand (in eastern Aleppo), as to whether they “are going to stay there [and] keep hostage [the civilians in the] city, because 1,000 of you are deciding the destiny of the 275,000 civilians.”
He had a desperate appeal directed to all parties to the conflict to not let that total annihilation happen.
“If you did decide to leave, in dignity, and with your weapons, to Idlib, or anywhere you wanted to go, I personally, I am ready physically to accompany you,” he added, according to a statement.
Mr. de Mistura also called on the Russian and Syrian governments regarding whether they were ready to continue the level of fighting that has been ongoing, in the city where so many civilians are in imminent grave danger, “for the sake of eliminating 1,000 Al-Nusra fighters,” or if they would announce an immediate halt in bombings if the Front left.
The conflict festers as the wold remains divided on the way out.
Mr. de Mistura said that the suspension of bilateral discussions between the two-chairs – the United States and Russia – on cessation of hostilities was a serious setback.
Earlier, this week, the world body said the killing and maiming of children in eastern Aleppo by the Syrian Government and its allies is not only a brutal abdication of international human rights obligations, it will have a long-lasting impact on the young victims for generations to come.
“Even if the war were to end today, it will take decades to recover from the destruction wrought on Aleppo and across Syria and the psychological wounds to heal from the trauma inflicted on these children,” said Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
“We are probably not talking of a lost generation, but quite possibly of lost generations,” he added.
FEATURED IMAGE on the top shows a child standing in front of his ground-flattened school after a bombardment in Ainjara village in rural Aleppo, Syria. Photo: UNICEF/Khalil Alshawi
