SWITZERLAND: The Red Cross says it has been given permission to enter the besieged Syrian neighbourhood of Baba Amro

Record ID: 280378

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: The Red Cross says it has been given permission to enter the besieged Syrian neighbourhood of Baba Amro
  • Date: 2nd March 2012
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (MARCH 1, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC) BUILDING ICRC SPOKESPERSON HICHAM HASSAN TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICRC SPOKESPERSON HICHAM HASSAN SAYING: "The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent just received today a green light from the Syrian authori
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland, Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACURN72FRX0I0ERDBW3CU2FNNS
  • Story Text: Syrian authorities will let Red Cross aid workers enter the Baba Amro district of Homs, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in Geneva on Thursday (March 1).
    The move came as a three-week army siege of the neighborhood appeared to be ending on Thursday with the withdrawal of rebel forces.
    "The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent just received today a green light from the Syrian authorities to enter the neighbourhood of Baba Amro. This will happen tomorrow," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters.
    The green light came as Syrian rebels left Baba Amro after a 26-day military siege aimed at crushing a symbol of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
    But Hassan said the security situation in Baba Amro remained "unclear".
    "What is, however, very sure is that the needs on a humanitarian level are extremely huge today. This is in terms of access to food, access to water, but mainly also and especially needs to be evacuated in terms of people who are injured and people who are sick, and this is why we should be there as soon as possible," he said.
    Syrian authorities also gave the ICRC "positive indications" on the agency's February 21 request for a daily, two-hour cease-fire to deliver life-saving relief supplies to civilians, he said.
    A statement in the name of the fighters urged the ICRC and other humanitarian groups to enter Baba Amro and bring aid to 4,000 civilians who had stayed in their damaged houses.
    ICRC aid trucks had been meant to go from Damascus to Homs Thursday, but snow had prevented them from reaching the city, 160 km (100 miles) north of the capital, Hassan said.
    In recent weeks, he said, the ICRC's local affiliate, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, had distributed aid elsewhere in Homs, including to people who fled Baba Amro. But it had not been able to take supplies and services into the rebel stronghold itself.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register