MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Monday, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the aid convoy crossed the conflict line in the Big Orem area of the Syrian city of Aleppo. Later in the day, UN officials stated that the convoy had been attacked and there were casualties.
"MSF strongly denounces this attack, another example of the continuous disregard paid to the basic rules of war in the Syrian conflict, and demands that all warring parties involved in the conflict in Syria respect humanitarian workers and civilians, health facilities and civilian infrastructures," the spokesperson for the international medical humanitarian organization said.
About 20 civilians were killed in the attack on a humanitarian aid convoy, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement earlier on Tuesday.
"We demand that the major international powers involved in this conflict assume their responsibilities and take more concrete steps to put an end to all attacks against civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities and aid convoys," the spokesperson stressed.
The attack came at a time of a supposed ceasefire in Syria that was expected to establish after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US State Secretary John Kerry reached a deal on Syria on September 9.
Lavrov and Kerry are meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and are expected to discuss the attack and the ceasefire issue.
The United Nations suspended the movements of its aid convoys in the crisis-torn Syria following the attack, but said they were ready to renew these activities when the situation becomes safer.
