UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- UN humanitarian workers continued to provide assistance in northwest Syria where at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured since a cease-fire collapse earlier this week, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Thursday.
The cease-fire ended after only a three-day respite from hostilities, Dujarric told reporters at a regularly scheduled briefing.
"Najat Rochdi, the senior humanitarian adviser to the Special Envoy for Syria, said today (Thursday) it is deeply regrettable that the cessation of hostilities that had been announced on Monday collapsed," he said. "A new wave of violence is again threatening the lives of millions of civilians who live in the Idlib area, more than a million of whom are children."
The spokesman said Rochdi reported that during the lull in fighting many civilians had returned to their homes and are currently in areas where heavy attacks have resumed putting them at even greater risk.
Rochdi reported more than 500 innocent civilians were killed and hundreds more injured since the escalation of fighting began in late April, Dujarric said. Displacement figures also have climbed at an alarming rate, with some 400,000 men, women and children forced to flee, many of them multiple times.
"Rochdi said that parties to the conflict are legally bound to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and perpetrators of any violations of international humanitarian law must be held to account," he said.
