Leaders of UN agencies appeal for end to carnage in Syria

The heads of the United Nations' main humanitarian branches and leaders of major humanitarian non-governmental organizations issued a joint appeal on Syria Thursday, calling for an end to the carnage, said a UN spokesman at a daily news briefing.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) leaders and UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui are among the signatories.

More than ever before, they say, the world needs to hear a collective public voice calling for an end to this outrage, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general.

Until there is a diplomatic solution to the fighting, the joint appeal says, there needs to be unimpeded and sustained access for humanitarian organizations to bring immediate relief to all those in need inside Syria, said Haq.

The groups also called for humanitarian pauses and unconditional, monitored ceasefires; a cessation of attacks on civilian infrastructure; and freedom of movement for all civilians and the immediate lifting of all sieges by all parties, said the spokesman.

Since anti-government protests escalated into a full-scale civil war in Syria in 2011, more than 250,000 people have been killed. Today, some 13.5 million people inside Syria need humanitarian assistance, according to UN statistics. Enditem