Red Cross chief sees Syria aid shift towards ‘rehabilitation’

Providing humanitarian aid in war-ravaged Syria looks set to shift increasingly away from emergency, life-saving assistance towards rehabilitating devastated areas to help Syrians return home, the head of the Red Cross says.

Peter Maurer tells reporters in Geneva that the conflict appeared to be entering a new stage, with fewer “big battle” moments and perhaps even a chance to provide displaced Syrians with a sense of normalcy after seven years of devastating violence.

“Syria to us looks very different from Syria last year or from Syria two years ago,” Maurer says.

Syria has been torn apart a war that has left more than 350,000 people dead and displaced millions.

But Maurer says that as the situation in many parts of the country appears to be stabilizing, he expected to see a shift away from a pure focus on emergency assistance towards reestablishing services in areas people want to return to.

“For us it is just important that we get the rehabilitation thing going,” he says.

Maurer points out that Syria now appeared to be split into fairly clearly defined territories, and says the “big actors” seemed ready to work towards “consensus to stop the war and to go into a phase of more tranquility.”

— AFP