ICRC to deliver food aids to Syria’s Aleppo

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have joined in an operation to deliver food aids to 60,000 people in Syria’s Aleppo Province.

ICRC President Peter Maurer says it is the biggest such operation in months, state-run BBC reported Wednesday.

The organization stated earlier this month that the humanitarian situation in Syria was “catastrophic” following three years of foreign-sponsored militancy across the country.

Although most of Aleppo has been liberated by Syrian forces, the ICRC said the food aid will be distributed both in militant-held and government-held areas of the northern Syrian province.

The ICRC reportedly negotiated the humanitarian access over several months, in talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s government and militant groups.

Maurer said that he had first presented the Aleppo plan to Syrian government officials in Damascus in January.

“We have a major food distribution ongoing in Aleppo. It is the first time in months on that scale,” he added. “It is on both sides of the front line.”

The operation, which was not previously announced, began on Tuesday and is due to continue for a few days. Goods are being delivered by a three-truck convoy accompanied by ICRC officials and volunteers from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

The Syrian relief operation is currently the ICRC’s largest. The group says it intends to reach one million people each month in the second half of 2014.