UN Officials:

World Leaders Should Join Forces to End Syria Crisis

Date: 13 March 2015 - 21:37

News ID: ۱۲۰۲۱

NEW YORK (Press TV) – Senior UN officials have called on world leaders to join forces in a bid to bring an end to the Syria crisis which has exacted a heavy toll on civilians.
"We need world leaders to put aside their differences and use their influence to bring about meaningful change in Syria," the heads of the UN agencies for humanitarian affairs, health, food aid, refugees, Palestinian refugees, and  children said in a joint statement on Friday, adding that the crisis has led to an "unconscionable" human cost.
The UN officials warned that the future generation of Syria is in danger due to the international community's failure to find ways to terminate the crisis which has entered its fifth year.
"The future of a generation is at stake. The credibility of the international community is at stake," the statement added.
So far over 210,000 people have reportedly died in Syria, which has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011.
New figures show that over 76,000 people, including thousands of children, lost their lives in Syria in 2014. Nearly 4 million Syrians have left their country since the beginning of the crisis, and 7.6 million civilians have been internally displaced.
The unabated conflict "continues to exact an unconscionable human cost. A crisis that the international community has failed to stop," the heads of the UN agencies said.
In the statement, the UN officials also stressed they will press ahead with their support for the Syrians who have been "caught in the middle of this war. People who are vulnerable. Besieged. With nowhere to go."
The UN officials particularly brought up the suffering of the Syrian children and youth, saying, "Children and young people are subject to and surrounded by violence, despair and deprivation."
They added that world leaders should use their influence to alleviate the tragedy of the Syrian people.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take decisive measures to resolve the humanitarian crisis in war-torn Syria.
"The Syrian people feel increasingly abandoned by the world as they enter the fifth year of the war that has torn their country apart,” Ban said in a statement, noting, "I call upon the Security Council to take determined measures to resolve this crisis.”
On Thursday, 21 human rights and aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Handicap International, the Syrian Relief Network, Oxfam and Save the Children, criticized the UNSC for "failing Syria.”