In response to the proposed 48 hour ceasefire in Aleppo, Andy Baker, Oxfam's Syria Crisis Response manager said:
“Cut off from supplies and heavily bombarded, the people of Aleppo have borne the brunt of the fighting and have suffered far too much and too long in this bloody conflict. The recent battles have pushed hundreds of thousands of already vulnerable people to the brink.
“A fully fledged ceasefire, observed by all sides in the conflict, is necessary to get desperately needed aid into all areas of the city and to ensure that essential repairs can be carried out to the water and power supplies.
“While the proposed ceasefire is welcome, it must not be a one-off. Regular, sustained pauses in the conflict are necessary to deal with the scale of the suffering, devastation and destruction in the city. So far Russia, whose air force has reportedly been involved in many bombing raids over Aleppo, has agreed to observe the ceasefire but all sides in the conflict must agree to the same 48 hour pause in fighting if help is to reach all those that need it.”
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Note to editors
Oxfam is helping to provide clean water across battle lines in eastern and western Aleppo as well as elsewhere in Syria. A generator intended to ensure that water is pumped to the city, even when power supplies are cut off has only been able to operate irregularly due to fuel shortages and engineers have been unable to carry out essential repairs to the water infrastructure due to the fighting.
