Yesterday High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides outlined an emergency humanitarian initiative for Aleppo aimed at allowing humanitarian organisations to do their work and civilians to be rescued and protected.

The initiative, taken in cooperation with the UN, consists of two main elements: First, it aims at facilitating the urgent delivery of basic life-saving assistance to civilians in East Aleppo covering medical, water and food needs. An inter-aid agency convoy stands ready to move from West to East Aleppo drawing on prepositioned stocks made possible also through EU first line response funding. This convoy can deliver aid to a maximum of 130,000 people. Second, in parallel and simultaneously, it aims at ensuring the medical evacuations of wounded and sick from Eastern Aleppo in urgent need of medical care, with a focus on women, children and the elderly.

The EU calls on all its partners and all the parties, to unite on this humanitarian initiative for Aleppo for the sake of humanity and the political future of Syria. The EU is also mobilising a €25 million emergency aid package to support and scale up the first line response of its humanitarian partners to cover urgent medical, water and sanitation, and food assistance in Aleppo and in other priority areas across the country. The full statement is available here