Syrian Humanitarian Crisis Worsens as Russia Escalates Airstrikes

Secretary General Antonio Guterres once again decried the rising violence and loss of civilian life in Syria, particularly in Idlib located in northwest Syria. He called yet again for an immediate ceasefire. The Secretary General’s statement on February 28th came a day after a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Syria. The Secretary General said that he has spoken with Russian and Turkish leaders, urging a ceasefire. However, he failed to publicly call out Russia by name for helping the Assad regime vanquish the remnants of opposition forces with indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure, causing civilian deaths and the destruction of schools and hospitals. Secretary General Guterres also failed to condemn Russia and China for their vetoes of a Security Council resolution that would have kept a vital cross-border route open for the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid. The result is the impediment of delivery of assistance to alleviate the human suffering that Russia and the Assad regime have inflicted upon the Syrian people.

Failed to hold Russia to account for its part in creating the humanitarian crisis in the first place

During the Security Council briefing Thursday by the United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ursula Mueller, she painted in detail a very grim picture of the loss of life, food insecurity and medical supply shortages in the parts of Syria most affected by the violence. She asked the Syrian government to act more urgently in providing timely approval for the importation of all necessary medical supplies and for regular overland deliveries from Damascus to areas in need. However, she failed to hold Russia to account for its part in creating the humanitarian crisis in the first place. Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told the Security Council in her own briefing that fighting in northwestern Syria has forced 900,000 people — 500,000 of them children — from their homes since December 2019. She said that military strikes against camps in Idlib Governorate were both reprehensible and morally repugnant, with reports of children freezing to death. “Millions of Syrian children are crying tonight — from hunger and cold…from wounds and pain…from fear, loss and heartbreak,” Ms. Fore said. She asked the Security Council members to stand up for Syrian children with one united voice. Members of the Security Council do speak up regularly on behalf of Syrian children and other civilian victims, but nothing constructive comes out of the talkfests to stop the violence. We hear time and time again the refrain, “there is no military solution. There is only a political solution.” One notable permanent member’s words in this regard are completely hollow – Russia. It is actively helping the Syrian regime to force a political solution on Syrian President Assad’s terms through military action.

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Russia should foot the lion’s share of the bill of restoring a post-war Syria

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily A. Nebenzia told the Security Council with a straight face, “Please don’t tell us we are exacerbating the situation.” Ambassador Nebenzia, your country is doing worse than “exacerbating the situation.” Your country is largely responsible for creating the situation with its indiscriminate bombing in support of the Assad regime’s brutal military campaign. The indiscriminate killing of civilians and destruction of civilian facilities constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. “Shelter, food, and medicine are desperately needed. But they are no match for Russian airstrikes,” U.S. ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, said in her remarks to the Security Council. “If we are to end the humanitarian crisis in northwest Syria, we must concentrate all of our efforts on immediately establishing a durable and verifiable ceasefire – one brokered by a fully empowered UN. This will require Russia to ground its planes at once and tell the regime to pull back its forces.” It may take as much as $400 billion to restore the economy and social services and to rebuild civilian infrastructure in an eventual post-war Syria. Russia should foot the lion’s share of the bill.