Russia's UN envoy expresses concern over situation in Syria's Raqqa

MOSCOW: Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Vasily Nebenzya on Wednesday expressed concerns over the humanitarian situation in Syria's Raqqa, adding that the situation had become 'awful' there.

Speaking to reporters of TASS news agency, Nebenzya said: "The humanitarian situation in Raqqa is awful, but everyone is playing it cool. Our American colleagues levelled the city to the ground as they were fighting the ISIS there, and currently, the whole city is rigged with explosives. The region is full of corpses of killed people and is lacking water, electricity and any medical facilities. Nothing is going on, the city is not being restored, people cannot come back. They are living in awful unbelievable conditions in the refugee camps".

According to Nebenzya, he described the situation in Raqqa as "a humanitarian situation close to a humanitarian disaster".

The Syrian authorities earlier on December 31, 2017, unearthed around 115 bodies discovered from a mass grave in Raqqa.

According to Syria's Sana news agency, the bodies were of civilians and soldiers killed by the IS militants, who had been controlling the city before their downfall late this year.

In October last year, the Syrian army and the United States-(US) backed Syrian Democratic Forces captured Raqqa, which was the de facto capital of the IS. Other areas of Raqqa were also recovered from the dreaded terrorist group.

Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011. Protesters have been long demanding the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over his autocratic rule.