CFR Update: UN Demands Access to Refugee Camp in Syria

TOP OF THE AGENDA UN Demands Access to Refugee Camp in Syria The UN Security Council demanded (UN News) humanitarian access to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp outside of Damascus, calling on all parties to cease fighting to allow the agency to deliver food, water, and medicine. About 18,000 people, including 3,500 children, have been trapped by fighting in the region. Self-declared Islamic State militants advanced on the camp last week, and humanitarian aid deliveries (NYT) have been halted for most of the past week. Clashes (National) and shelling continued as forces battled for control of the camp on Monday. Meanwhile, militants captured (Reuters), and later freed, three hundred Kurdish men at various checkpoints in northern Syria on Monday. An official said the al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front was behind the kidnappings, but the group has not claimed responsibility.

ANALYSIS "The outcome in Yarmouk threatens to be a turning point for the areas around Damascus. For two years, ISIL has sought to establish strongholds for itself with little success. Other than in Hajar Al Aswad, rebel forces, primarily Jaish Al Islam, tried relentlessly to prevent ISIL from establishing a foothold. Most of the camp is now under the control of ISIL," writes Hassan Hassan in the National. "The government of Syria, and often some neighbouring countries, continue to hamper humanitarian work by imposing bureaucratic hurdles, restricting travel across borders and across frontlines, and making it difficult for civilians to access aid. The worsening security situation and lack of respect of the humanitarian work is furthermore blocking us from delivering assistance to many of those who need it the most," the Norwegian Refugee Council's Jan Egeland writes in Al Jazeera. "Over the past two years, government shelling has killed hundreds of Yarmouk’s inhabitants, a mixture of Palestinians and Syrians, and the IS takeover of the camp has provoked an intensified aerial bombardment. The most urgent priority now is to establish a safe corridor through which civilians can be evacuated from Yarmouk and aid can come in to those too ill to leave," writes the Irish Times.