Syria: UN-sponsored talks get under way; relief agencies amplify calls for access to besieged civilians
29 January 2016 – With United Nations-mediated talks on ending the five-year crisis in Syria set to get under way today as scheduled, UN relief agencies and their partners are reiterating their appeal for unhindered access by relief workers to more than four million desperate people spread across 18 besieged areas in the war-torn country.
Speaking to reporters at the regular bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva earlier today, Bettina Luescher, for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said there are an estimated 4.6 million people were besieged in 18 areas.
"WFP is appealing that all humanitarian actors be given access to those areas so that they can deliver life-saving aid," she said, referring to the town of Madaya and the similarly besieged areas of Zabadani, Foah and Kefraya, flagged by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) as being in dire need of food, medical supplies and other aid.
As for the situation in Madaya – the most widely known of Syria's besieged towns, coming to the world's attention after reports of people dying of starvation or being killed trying to flee – she said there was nothing new to report as far as humanitarian access to the more than 40,000 people remaining there.
"It is a very complicated and bureaucratic process, and only a very small number of permissions have been given access to besieged areas, where tens of thousands of families are still waiting for aid," said Ms. Luescher, adding: "This is why putting an end to the fighting is paramount. WFP is talking to all sides, but an agreement has to be made on the ground."
She went on to stress that it is also important to think of all the places which might not be in the headlines today, where men, women and children are desperate and in need of urgent help.
Asked if WFP has considered air-dropping supplies, Ms. Luescher said this was a "very hard thing to pull off," requiring a safe airspace as well as a secured area on the ground, where large packages could land safely. There also had to be people on the ground to distribute those goods. That is not possible under the current situation. Trucks are the safest way to deliver aid at the moment, she explained.
Meanwhile on the political front, as previously announced by the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, the intra-Syrian talks will start today.
According to a statement from his spokesperson, Mr. de Mistura will start by meeting the Government's delegation today, headed by the Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari. The Special Envoy will continue meetings with other participants in the talks and with representatives of the civil society subsequently.
At a press conference on 25 January, Mr. de Mistura explained that these will be proximity talks, meaning that the parties will be meeting with him separately.
At that time he said he is under no illusions about the difficulties in ending a war that has killed over 250,000 people, sent over 4 million fleeing the country, displaced 6.5 million internally, and put 13.5 million people inside the country in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
"In terms of vision, things may get faster, things may get slower, I can tell you in advance, don't be surprised," he told reporters. "There will be a lot of posturing, we know that, a lot of walk-outs and walk-ins because a bomb has fallen or because someone has done an attack, and you will see that happening," he said.
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