He is “imperative“to quickly evacuate the population of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, besieged by the Russian army and its allies, because of the humanitarian situation”catastrophic“, pleaded on Saturday an official of the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Ukraine.
“In Mariupol, the situation is catastrophic and getting worse day by day“, told AFP Laurent Ligozat, emergency coordinator of the NGO in Ukraine.
“Today there is no more water; people are having a lot of problems accessing drinking water and this is becoming somewhat of an essential issue. There is no more electricity, there is no more heating. Food is running out, stores are empty“, he said from the city of Lviv, in the west of the country.
MSF already had staff in this strategic port of some 450,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week. The NGO still has teams on site, which have been stuck there for several days.
After several days of shelling, Russia announced Saturday morning a ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians trapped in the fighting in Mariupol, on the Black Sea, and the neighboring city of Volnovakha, also besieged.
But the Ukrainians then postponed these evacuations, citing ceasefire violations by Russian forceswhich the latter have denied.
“Quite simply, for several days, nothing has come in or out of town.“, lamented Mr. Ligozat.
He appealed to belligerents to allow civilians to leave.
