Starting this Thursday, there will be a daily ceasefire of three hours in Aleppo, Syria, allowing humanitarian convoys to enter the city safely.
In a briefing held on Wednesday, General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defense Ministry official, said the lull in fighting would occur from 10 in the morning to one in the afternoon local time.
The briefing followed an urgent plea for intervention by fifteen of the 35 doctors stationed in Aleppo. In a letter addressed to US President Barak Obama, they pleaded for a stop to the bombardment of hospitals in the besieged city that’s being bombarded by the Russian-backed Syrian air force.
“We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers: we desperately need a zone free from bombing over eastern Aleppo to stop the attacks, and international action to ensure Aleppo is never besieged again,” the doctors wrote. The letter stated that the “inaction” of the U.S. makes the U.S. partially responsible “for the crimes of the Syrian government and its Russian ally.”
Despite Russia’s announcement, there has been little respite in the fighting going on in the war-torn city. The Western, government-controlled part of Aleppo, has been cut off since the weekend after the rebels seized Ramouseh, a key pathway into the area, which holds 1.5 million civilians.
The UN’s Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said that reports of a chlorine gas being dropped on Aleppo are being investigated. “There is a lot of evidence that it actually did take place,” he told reporters, adding that if confirmed, the attack would be considered a war crime.
The 3 hours of quiet promised by Russia will most probably not be sufficient to allow the necessary aid materials to enter.
There have been repeated requests for a 48-hour ceasefire to allow aid into the city, and for some of the most seriously injured to be removed. However, meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday failed to produce any direct agreement on a ceasefire.
