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Evacuation
Geneva, Aug. 24, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) The UN on Thursday called for a humanitarian pause to allow an estimated 20,000 trapped civilians to escape the Syrian city of Raqqa, and urged the U.S.-led coalition to rein in air strikes that have caused casualties.
“Boats on the Euphrates must not be attacked, people who come out cannot risk air raids when they come out,” Jan Egeland, UN Secretary-General Humanitarian Adviser on Syria, told reporters in Geneva.
“So now is the time to think of possibilities, pauses or otherwise that might facilitate the escape of civilians, knowing that Islamic State fighters are doing their absolute best to keep them in place,” he said.
Egeland said the UN is still assessing the outcome of talks held on Monday in Riyadh between the three Syrian opposition groups, who failed to unite.
Asked whether Syria peace talks would be held in Geneva in September, he said: “Based on our assessment of what happened in Riyadh we will decide how to move ahead in the future.”
In 2016, humanitarian pauses allowed civilians to leave rebel-held areas of Aleppo. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Sadiya Hamza