UN envoy to Syria calls for ‘immediate humanitarian aid’

Syria needs more "immediate humanitarian aid Keystone-SDA

Syria urgently needs more humanitarian aid, the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen said on Sunday.

According to UN estimates, over a million people have been displaced since the rebel offensive aimed at ousting Bashar al-Assad.

+About 500 Syrians affected by Swiss asylum freeze

“Syria is facing an enormous humanitarian crisis. We must ensure that the country receives increased immediate aid for its population and for refugees who wish to return. This is extremely important,” said Pedersen upon arriving in Damascus.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Pedersen also believes that establishing a credible justice system in Syria is crucial to prevent acts of revenge. “We need to ensure there is justice and accountability for the crimes committed. And we must make sure this happens through a credible justice system, without any acts of revenge,” he said in a statement to journalists.

Translated from French by DeepL/sp

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].