A Syrian girl eats bread at a temporary shelter in Housh Nasri area, east of Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 16, 2018. (Xinhua/Hummam Sheikh Ali)
UNITED NATIONS, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The top negotiator of the United Nations on the Syria crisis reported on Friday that a cease-fire, although fragile, has been holding for the past six days in one part of the rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, told the Security Council that recent meetings in Douma in Eastern Ghouta between Russia and Jaish al-Islam, a coalition of Islamist rebel units involved in Syrian civil war, has led to a "tenuous, fragile cease-fire" between the Syrian government, the Russian military and Jaish al-Islam forces.
Briefing the council on the implementation of Resolution 2401, which demands an immediate cease-fire across Syria, de Mistura emphasized that the cease-fire is held in Douma, one of the three enclaves of Eastern Ghouta, and not replicated in the rest of Eastern Ghouta or elsewhere and it is extremely fragile.
UN efforts to facilitate meaningful contacts between Russia and either of the dominant forces in the two other enclaves of Eastern Ghouta -- Failaq al-Rahman and Ahrar al-Sham -- have not yet produced results, said de Mistura.
"In those two other areas we have not seen any cease-fire to speak of. Rather, we have seen government forces and their allies pursue a concerted escalation against these two enclaves, with rapid ground offensives, accompanied by shelling and airstrikes."
At the same time, there are continuous outgoing shelling from these areas of Eastern Ghouta inside civilian areas of Damascus, he said.
Negotiations in Douma in the last few days, he said, show that there is a way to create the conditions to advance the implementation of Resolution 2401. The UN therefore stands ready to facilitate further engagement of this kind so as to make a concrete contribution to the realization of Resolution 2401 in all areas of Eastern Ghouta, which is close to capital city of Damascus.
Violence has escalated across many other parts of Syria, where there is no cease-fire to speak of, said the UN envoy.
In Afrin on the northern border with Turkey, Turkish government forces and their armed allies continue to take ground rapidly, he said.
"We have also received reports of shelling on besieged Foah and Kefraya, these two villages which have been for a long time besieged by opposition forces. And there have been airstrikes in Idlib, a new armed opposition offensive in Hama, and clashes and airstrikes in Daraa in southern Syria."
He voiced concern over the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, Afrin and across the country.
While humanitarian access was only limited in one part of Eastern Ghouta, the situation in Afrin is particularly worrying, he said.
Since March 6, people in Afrin city have also reportedly suffered from severe water shortages again as the source of water to Afrin city has reportedly been damaged by fighting, he said.
"We are also highly concerned at the situation for civilians across all of Syria. This means those being displaced as well as the almost 3 million in besieged and hard-to-reach areas and those caught up in escalations in Idlib, Hama, Aleppo and Daraa. Resolution 2401 demands to 'all parties to immediately lift the sieges of populated areas." We have not seen this," he said.
