Alwaght– Thousands of Palestinian and Syrian refugees trapped in the Yarmouk refugee camp sufferes “untold indignities” amid intensifying hostilities of ISIS terrorist group.
Since 1 April, Yarmouk has been the scene of intense fighting between a number of terrorist groups, including ISIS terrorist group, rendering it virtually impossible for civilians to leave.
According to UN report released on 13 April, "among Yarmouk’s 18,000 besieged residents are 3,500 children, who have been reliant on UNRWA’s intermittent distributions of food and other assistance for over a year. In some areas, interruptions of humanitarian operations have left thousands of people without aid for months".
Over the weekend, Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General for the United Nations, visited Damascus to get a sense of the situation at the Yarmouk camp, hear from refugees affected by the crisis, and consult with leaders on funnel aid to people in need.
In his statement released earlier today, he reiterated the need to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the civilians inside the refugee camp and added that his meeting with officials from the Syrian Government had offered “some grounds for optimism.”
“However there is much more work that needs to be done and I shall be following up today with senior government counterparts on the issue of humanitarian access,” the UN official admitted.
Pointing to his personal interactions with refugees affected by the crisis in Yarmouk, the UNRWA chief said he was “deeply moved” by the tales of those who had been forced to flee fierce fighting in and around the camp and whose resilience and dignity were “truly humbling.”
“It is the human dimension that must motivate the international system at every level and which provides the most compelling imperative to act,” Mr. Krähenbühl concluded.
“The Syria conflict has a human face. These are individuals with a dignity and destiny that must be at the centre of our responses as we grapple with the complexities of protecting civilians, in Yarmouk and beyond.”
