The worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria

UNITED NATIONS: The cruel conflict in Syria continues to tear families apart, inflicts brutal suffering on the innocent, and leaves them pleading for protection and justice. I readily acknowledge that there have been reports of a significant drop in violence in some areas of the country, but such steps forward continue to be counter-weighted by the reality of a conflict that continues to devastate the civilian population.

Just last week, 30 children and women were gravely injured in a heinous attack by the Islamic State (IS) on besieged neighborhoods in Deir ez-Zor as they were lining up for water. In addition, more than a hundred civilians, many of them women and children, have fallen victim, in recent weeks, to the escalating counter-IS airstrikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates of Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.