MSF Statement Regarding Attack on Aid Convoy in Syria

September 20, 2016

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is shocked by the September 19 attack on a humanitarian aid convoy that was designed to bring some small bit of relief to people in Syria’s Aleppo governorate, large swathes of which have been destroyed by the ongoing conflict in the country.

The convoy had been launched by the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and was headed for Urm Al-Kubra, in Aleppo’s western countryside. It consisted of some 31 trucks. At least 18 of those trucks were hit in the attack, the UN reported, and a number of SARC personnel were killed.

MSF would like to express our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the SARC volunteers who were killed in the attack, which demonstrated, once again, a complete and utter contempt for any efforts to alleviate the suffering.

MSF strongly denounces this attack, which was yet another example of the wholesale disregard for the basic rules of war in the Syrian conflict.

All warring parties involved in the conflict in Syria must respect humanitarian workers and civilians, health facilities, and civilian infrastructures. The major international powers involved in this conflict must assume their responsibilities and take more concrete steps to put an end to attacks against civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities and aid convoys.