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GENEVA / EASTERN GHOUTA UPDATE
STORY: GENEVA / EASTERN GHOUTA UPDATE
TRT: 3:12
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 FEBRUARY 2018 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Fighting continues this morning, that is what our reports from eastern Ghouta tell us, reports of shelling this morning. We also have reports of shelling towards Damascus from eastern Ghouta that was reported last night. That comes after what we could say yesterday, which was that military operations continue, so that was on Sunday, in besieged eastern Ghouta, and that resulted in the death of at least 30 people, including women and children. Also, on Sunday, attacks on Damascus from eastern Ghouta also continued. So, quite bleak assessment of the situation right now in the wake of the Security Council resolution, which called for a 30-day ceasefire throughout Syria, not only eastern Ghouta.”
4. Med shot, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“The United Nations is mobilised and ready to immediately support life saving aid convoys to several areas in eastern Ghouta as soon as conditions allow and we are also ready and have plans for evacuations of hundreds of medical cases as soon as we can.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“People in eastern Ghouta, what will save their lives are not words but they are actions. It’s action. It’s the change of the situation on the ground that allows these life-saving programmes to be carried out. That is what matters. Again, we stick to what has been agreed in the Security Council. It is a question of life and death. If there ever was any question of life and death, this is it. We need 30 days cessation of hostilities throughout Syria as the Security Council resolution demands.”
8. Wide shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Tarik Jasarevic, Spokesperson for the World Health Organisation (WHO):
“The latest list was about more than 1,000 names that was compiled a few weeks ago by Health Cluster in Gaziantep, that is in contact with organizations supporting directly health facilities in eastern Ghouta. Some 600 patients were classified to be moderate to severe cases so we’ve been talking about hundreds of cases, 700 cases, to be evacuated. And, again, I’ll just remind you that only 29 have been taken out by SARC (Syrian Arab Red Crescent) late December and some of them were then, after treatment, brought back to eastern Ghouta.”
10. Med shot, journalist
11. Med shot, journalist
The situation in Syria is ‘bleak’ in the wake of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire throughout the country, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for OCHA, said today (27 Feb), in Geneva, Switzerland, that fighting and shelling is continuing in besieged eastern Ghouta, preventing any aid from reaching those most desperately in need. He says that only actions and not words will save the lives of the people in eastern Ghouta.
He said “It is a question of life and death. If there ever was any question of life and death, this is it. We need 30 days cessation of hostilities throughout Syria as the Security Council resolution demands.”
Laerke said the agency received reports of shelling towards Damascus from eastern Ghouta Monday (26 Feb) and that military operations have continued since the Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding a nationwide cessation of hostilities on Saturday. Around 393,000 people are trapped in the enclave of eastern Ghouta near Damascus, which has been besieged by the government since 2013.
The OCHA spokesperson confirmed that the UN is mobilised and ready to immediately support life-saving aid convoys to several areas in eastern Ghouta as soon as conditions allow. It is also ready and has plans for the evacuation of hundreds of people in need of urgent medical treatment.
Tarik Jasarevic, spokesperson for the World Health Organisation, says that more than 1,000 people have been identified as needing urgent medical evacuation but that, since late December, only 29 sick and wounded have been taken out of eastern Ghouta for treatment by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
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