Beirut: Aid deliveries to besieged areas of Syria remain hard to make despite a nearly month-old ceasefire agreement, a Red Cross spokesman said on Wednesday, calling for more regular access to those in need of help.
The United Nations, Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent have reached some besieged areas since the start of the cessation of hostilities deal, which has helped reduce violence in parts of western Syria.
But hundreds of thousands of Syrians across the country remain besieged by government forces or armed groups including Daesh.
“The cessation of hostilities - honestly I don’t see the difference. The hard to reach areas continue to be hard to reach, for several reasons: humanitarian negotiations, security, coordination on the ground, the procedures,” International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman Pawel Krzysiek said.
Krzysiek said a drop in violence had provided some respite in areas such as Al Houla in Homs province, where the Red Cross and Red Crescent made a rare aid delivery overnight.
But access is still not regular enough.
“Even if people... received aid before the winter, like six or seven months ago, those people consumed those supplies,” he said. “We need to be given regular access, particularly to areas like Al Houla, where aid reached 70,000 people.”
