Transcription du point presse de Jan Egeland, Conseiller spécial de l'Envoyé spécial des Nations Unies pour la Syrie

The horrific fighting and bombardment in recent days, especially in and around Aleppo, is creating new areas with endless suffering and no access for humanitarians. So, the diplomats sitting in the ISSG are faced with the following dilemma. They seem to be having new possible besieged areas on our watch. We are having hundreds of relief workers unable to move in Aleppo, while the population is bleeding. That is happening while we are making progress, real progress, in reaching the original besieged areas, that was identified at the Munich communiqué and was the mandate for our group.

April was the best month so far, paradoxically, with the background of the horrific fighting in Aleppo and Homs and elsewhere. April was a month were we reached more than 40 percent of all of the people in the besieged areas, compared to, in all of 2015, we may have reached five percent of all of the people in the besieged areas.

Altogether 778,000 people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas have been reached. In the besieged areas alone 255,000 people reached. Virtually all of the civilians in the city of Deir ez-Zor is now covered by the very successful air drops. 22 air drops probably another one this afternoon to the people besieged by Islamic state fighters. The number of people in Deir ez-Zor has been actually, as contributions has started, a new assessment has shown there are not 200,000 people there, there are a 110,000 civilians there and they are being reached.

An enormous effort over the weekend made us reach all of the towns, in the four towns agreement, Madaya, Zabadani, Fuah and Kefraya. That took not one month only, as it should be, it took one and a half month, there were endless obstacles, and problems, in the end, because of the intervention of the taskforce members we could do those distribution at long last.

So 12 out of the 18 besieged areas have now been reached, six have still not been reached.

In the May plan that was submitted in April, we got [an] answer back that is not good news. Only 25 percent of the people we requested to go to in the May plan to besieged areas and hard to reach areas were approved. Another 25 percent of beneficiaries were approved but with a lot of conditions and half of the places in the May plan were not accepted, including east Aleppo.

That has therefore been an object of appeal from the UN. We have appealed to the government, on all of the areas not covered, and all of the areas we got partial permit to get relief or lower numbers of beneficiaries that we know are there.

We appeal all of those, and I appeal to the members of the taskforce to help us. We need to go to all of these places - 905,000 people.

However, nothing is more important now than to get an end of the fighting. What is done by the co-chairs of the ISSG, Russia and the US, couldn't be more important. But we don't need declarations. We need an end to bombardment and end to fighting.

It is a catastrophe, and the catastrophe that medical relief has been targeted, that doctors and nurses are killed while the population is bleeding. We hope that things will change in the short term. If not, eastern Aleppo may become a besieged area.

There are hundreds of relief workers, hundreds of trucks ready to avoid that happening, what we need are two things: an end to the fighting and we need permits to go to the suffering people.



Questions:

Q. (inaudible)

JE: Darayya is one of the towns that was approved for partial deliveries only. There is a permit to go there with baby milk and school material. What we asked for is to go to 4,000 people to cover all of their needs including food. This is a population that is at a brink of starvation. We have to come with all of the relief to all of the people so we have appealed that position. But to some extent it is an improvement that the government earlier said that there were only terrorists in Darayya and then now admitting that there are children there, they should have baby food and they should have school books.

East Harasta was one of the besieged places not approved. That is now fully [approved] on our list and we hope that we can go there and that will be the 13th besieged area out of the 18 to be covered. Duma was not approved at all. And then there are three areas called Arbin, Zabadin, Zamalka, that were approved but for a lower number of people than the number we know are there. We cannot go with supplies only to some of the people. We have to go to all of the people. It would be seen as an insult to those who are there and it is even dangerous for those who deliver to come with insufficient supplies.

Q. I was wondering whether you can comment on Russia’s proposal to close the Turkish border with Syria.

JE. We are very clear, we want to have all borders open, all lines open, cross-line and cross-border assistance is what keeps people alive in Syria. The Non-Governmental Organizations and the UN doing cross-border relief are the lifeline to millions of people. So, no, I am in favor of cross-border, cross-line, cross-desert, cross-mountain, the shortest possible route to people.

Q. The Russian proposal was due to the fact that there were terrorist groups and military groups which are crossing the border. Is it possible to keep the borders open for the sake of population and also to stop the arrival of these terrorist groups from these borders?

JE. Indeed, boarders should be closed for military supplies, there are too many arms in Syria as we talk and also for terrorists, for fighters. It should not be closed for relief, nor should it be closed for asylum seekers and refugees that want to flee. The borders should be open to the neighboring countries. Too many are not able to leave Syria, as it should be open to Europe and elsewhere. It is a disgrace to see that while the population of Aleppo is bleeding, their options to flee have never been more difficult than now.

Q. Is there any system of government in the world where you can legitimately deny aid to 900,000 of your own people and continue to run your country. I mean, how can this government do this and be seen as a legitimate option for the people?

JE. One cannot deny assistance to civilian populations, cannot in Syria, cannot in any other places. I am an old humanitarian, however, and I have seen too often us being denied access to civilians. It is not only in Syria, it is in too many other places. What is, I think, unique of Syria is the access problems, they are there in many places, Yemen, South Sudan, Central African Republic, etc. Besiegement is worse in Syria than in any other place on earth. It has been going on now for years, and we are now in danger of creating new besieged areas. We cannot allow that to happen.