The United Nations (UN) is urging the world to wake up and take action amid reports of what the agency described as a “meltdown of humanity” in Syria. The UN says that unarmed civilians are being massacred and thousands of people are trapped as the besieged city of Aleppo comes under attack.
The UN’s children’s agency says that children are trapped inside a building as it is reported that those who are loyal to the Bashar-al-Assad regime are carrying out extrajudicial killings in parts of Aleppo which have been seized back from Syrian opposition.
Unicef said it had received reports from a doctor that 100 children who were either unaccompanied, or who had become somehow separated from family members, were now trapped in a building which was under heavy fire in east Aleppo. The humanitarian organisation issued a plea to all parties to allow the children to be evacuated safely and immediately. British MPs have now called an emergency debate into the current situation.
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The UN said that reliable sources claim that pro-Syrian regime forces have been entering homes in rebel strongholds in the city and slaughtering civilians. A total of 82 civilians are understood to have been killed in four neighbourhoods after trying to flee their homes. However, a UN spokesman said that there could be more.
Meanwhile, the Turkish foreign ministry has said it is both horrified and outraged by a massacre of civilians. It said that the wounded were not being allowed to leave and that people were dying as a result of starvation.
MPs are now taking part in an emergency debate in the House of Commons in which the British government has been urged to pursue a ceasefire in Aleppo. The Commons has heard that humanitarian help is desperately needed. Former Conservative minister Andrew Mitchell said that Britain was “complicit” in the suffering faced by Syrians.
