Syria ceasefire: UN's Ban Ki-moon makes aid plea

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged Russia and the US to push all warring sides in Syria to allow safe passage for desperately needed aid.

Lorries with a month's food supply for 40,000 people are stuck at the Turkish border, 48 hours into a ceasefire.

Getting aid to civilians in besieged areas like the rebel-held eastern half of the city of Aleppo is a priority.

But disagreements between warring sides and concerns about safety are delaying emergency deliveries, the UN says.

Criticism has also been levelled at President Bashar al-Assad's government for trying to control aid flows.

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"It's crucially important [that] the necessary security arrangements" are made so the convoy can travel, Mr Ban said.

"I have been urging the Russian government to make sure that they exercise influence on the Syrian government, and also the American side to make sure that Syrian armed groups, they also fully co-operate."

REUTERS

Image captionChildren, one carrying a toy gun, protest against continuing aid delays in Aleppo

REUTERS

Image captionResidents of eastern Aleppo are angry that a government siege is continuing

The Syrian government says it will only allow aid co-ordinated through itself and the UN to reach Aleppo.

Meanwhile, UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had recorded no casualties in the first 48 hours of the ceasefire, contradicting earlier Russian accounts of two government troop deaths on the Castello Road, which leads to Aleppo.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have agreed in a phone call to extend the truce for another 48 hours, the US State Department says.

"There was agreement that as a whole, despite sporadic reports of violence, the arrangement is holding," spokesman Mark Toner said.

AFP

Image captionThe ceasefire has provided a rare moment of peace in Syria

Some 250,000 people are trapped in eastern Aleppo. Protests have been held against the UN as the area waits for aid but people are enjoying the temporary calm, residents say.

"The streets were always empty before," a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Abo Haitham, told Reuters news agency.

"But now people are coming and going, children are playing in the playground. But the downside is that the markets are empty."

In government-controlled western Aleppo, pictures showed young people relaxing outside. Before the ceasefire, districts there were regularly targeted by rebel rocket and mortar fire.

AFP

Image captionSyrians in government-held western Aleppo celebrate Eid al-Adha amid the ceasefire

Source: BBC News