UNITED NATIONS/ BEIRUT - The United Nations human rights chief has said that the latest reports of civilian deaths and injuries in Syria, including bombings of marketplaces and medical facilities, reveal a “monstrous disregard for civilian lives by all parties to the conflict,” and called for urgent action to help the Syrian people.
“Reports are coming in from Aleppo, Homs, Damascus and Rural Damascus, Idleb and Deir ez-Zour of mounting civilian casualties,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement released by his Office (OHCHR).
“In Idleb last week, on 19 April, bombs were reportedly dropped in a vegetable market in Maarat al-Nu'man, the busiest area in town, during the busiest part of the day, killing at least 44 people and destroying dozens of shops. In the town of Kafr Nabel, bombs were again dropped on a market in the busiest area of the town, narrowly missing an after-school centre containing 50 children aged 6 to 10,” he added.
In addition, the High Commissioner said that in the opposition-controlled part of Aleppo over the past few days, pro-Government aircraft have destroyed a key hospital and other medical facilities, reportedly killing a number of medical personnel, including the only remaining paediatrician in the area, as well as many patients.
In the Government-controlled part of Aleppo, another hospital was struck and many civilians were killed in attacks launched in a number of neighbourhoods. “In short, the violence is soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities. There are deeply disturbing reports of military build-ups indicating preparations for a lethal escalation,” Mr. Zeid said.
The High Commissioner said OHCHR has over the years documented numerous attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities as well numerous strikes on marketplaces during busy shopping times – which, depending on the circumstances, may amount to war crimes.
“In any case, these indicate a serious, alarming disregard for one of the cornerstones of international humanitarian law: the duty to protect civilians,” he said.
Civilians also remain trapped in besieged villages, towns and cities across Syria, including the town of Fu'a and Kefraya, outside the city of Aleppo. Many innocent civilians are at risk of starvation and have no access to adequate medical care, the High Commissioner said. “The inhabitants of these towns remain at grave risk of revenge attacks by opposition groups, should truce agreements collapse,” he said. While information is much more difficult to gather from ISIL-occupied areas, the High Commissioner expressed deep concern at the numerous allegations of civilian casualties due to air strikes.
Moreover, Doha has requested an "emergency" meeting of Arab League envoys to discuss deadly Syrian regime air raids on the war-ravaged city of Aleppo, the official Qatar News Agency reported Saturday.
Qatar's permanent envoy at the Cairo-based pan-Arab body has requested holding "a meeting to discuss the dangerous escalation in the city of Aleppo and the Syrian regime forces' massacres against civilians" there, said the statement on QNA.
The request comes after Russia said it will not ask the Syrian regime it backs to halt air raids on Aleppo, capital of the northern province of the same name and a key battleground in the five-year Syria war.
Some 250 civilians have been killed in Syrian regime air raids since April 22 or in army and rebel crossfire that has intensified despite a truce which came into force on February 27, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia late on Friday "strongly" condemned the raids and urged the Syrian regime's allies "to take all measures needed to stop these attacks and all crimes carried out by (President) Bashar al-Assad and his supporters against the Syrian people."
"Through this criminal act, the tyrant of Damascus Bashar al-Assad, affirms that he is not serious in responding to the demands of the international community or in moving ahead with the ongoing talks to peacefully resolve the Syrian crisis," said a Saudi foreign ministry official in a statement on the SPA news agency.
A new round of UN-backed peace talks is set to start on May 10 in Geneva. Qatar and Saudi Arabia support Syrian rebels fighting Assad's Russian- and Iranian-backed regime in a conflict which has killed more than 270,000 people since it began in March 2011. Another Gulf state, the United Arab Emirates, made similar remarks Saturday urging an end to violence and urging the UN Security Council to help end the bloodshed.
The UAE voiced its "deep concern" over the "Syrian government forces' immoral targeting of hospitals and medical services," in a foreign ministry statement on news agency WAM. "This unjustified escalation against civilians" could derail the political process and the ceasefire, it warned.
A total of four medical facilities were hit in Aleppo Friday on both sides of the front line, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. A Syrian regime raid on Wednesday hit a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross as well as nearby housing, killing 30 people.
Moreover, the number of Syrians living below the poverty line has almost tripled after five years of conflict, according to a report published this week.
Around 83.4 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line compared with 28 percent in 2010, the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the University of St Andrews said. An estimated 13.5 million people in Syria needed humanitarian aid by late 2015, and more than 4 million of these were in Damascus and Aleppo provinces.
"According to one estimate, life expectancy dropped from 70 in 2010 to 55.4 in 2014," the report said. Around half of Syria's 493 hospitals in 2010 have been seriously damaged in the war, it added.
"The deliberate targeting of doctors and pharmacists has forced many to flee the country, at a higher rate than that of the average population. "As a result, the number of persons per doctor in the country rose from 661 in 2010 to 1,442 in 2015."
Around 12.1 million Syrians lack adequate access to water, sanitation and waste disposal, the report said. Destruction of housing and infrastructure was estimated at around $90 billion.
Damaged pumps and pipelines led to the loss of almost half of potential drinking water supply in 2015, the Syrian General Establishment for Drinking Water and Waste Disposal was cited as saying. Drinking water per capita dropped from 72 cubic metres to 48 cubic metres between 2011 and 2015.
The numbers were just as bleak in education, with around 2.7 million children of school-age out of school both inside and outside Syria, the report said. The economy contracted by 55 percent between 2010 and 2015, when it had been expected to grow by 32 percent.