13 January,2017 09:39 AM IST | | Agencies
The ceasefire in the Syria war is holding for the most part, but humanitarian aid is still not getting through to besieged areas where food is running out, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday, voicing concern that 23 buses and Syrian drivers used in recent evacuations were being stopped from leaving the villages of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province by armed groups. He called for them to be allowed to leave
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura at a press conference in Geneva on Thursday. Pic/AFP
Geneva: The ceasefire in the Syria war is holding for the most part, but humanitarian aid is still not getting through to besieged areas where food is running out, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday, voicing concern that 23 buses and Syrian drivers used in recent evacuations were being stopped from leaving the villages of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province by armed groups. He called for them to be allowed to leave.
"These are not UN officials, these are Syrian buses with Syrian drivers. And that is not to happen because this complicates then tit-for-tat approaches," de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.
The ceasefire was largely holding, he said, but fighting was still going on in two villages in the Wadi Barada valley, the site of water pumping facilities serving more than 5 million people in Damascus.
