Aid poised to reach desperate Aleppo: UN envoy

The UN Special Envoy for Syria stressed Thursday that humanitarian aid convoys stand at the ready to reach the two million civilians trapped in Syria's northern city of Aleppo.

"We are ready not only verbally, we are ready concretely, practically and operationally," Staffan de Mistura told press after the weekly humanitarian taskforce meeting here.

"We want a 48-hour pause, the Russian Federation replied yes, we will wait for others to do the same, but we are ready, trucks are ready," he added.

His special advisor Jan Egeland followed up by explaining that planned relief operations would be based around a three-pronged approach.

This would include a life-line to eastern Aleppo going cross-border from Turkey, simultaneous distributions in western Aleppo through cross-line efforts and also critical repair of the electrical system located in the disputed southern part of Aleppo.

This electrical plant is meant to serve 1.8 million people with electricity as well as provide power to the pumping stations which provides the war-torn city with running water.

"We are waiting on the other actors on the ground (to install a 48-hour ceasefire), that has taken more time frankly than I thought was needed," Egeland said.

Latest UN figures reveal that since relief operations kicked off in February this year, 1,275,750 people have received multi-sectoral aid, far short of what the UN had hoped to achieve by now.

Ongoing fighting between factions loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups seeking to oust him has meant that humanitarian actors have been unable to fully assist those in need across Syria, especially in the strategically important city of Aleppo. Endit