While millions of people have fled the conflict in Syria, a significant number of civilians continues to live in the ravaged cities across the country. In the largest city of Aleppo, where shells, bombs and mortars have damaged vital infrastructure — including medical facilities — the few hospitals that are left are overstretched, to say the least.

The ICRC has been providing food and life-saving support to Syrians since the beginning through our joint efforts with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. Already this year, the ICRC has reached 16 million Syrian people with clean water, 2.6 million with food and 500,000 with essential household items.

Now in its sixth year, the conflict in Syria is the largest and most complex humanitarian crisis in the world, with no end in sight. The ICRC’s head of delegation in Syria, Marianne Gasser, in her interview to ABC Radio from Aleppo underlines the increasing humanitarian needs of the civilian population and the urgency to find a sustainable political solution to the conflict.

Listen in to what she told Mark Colvin of ABC Radio.

See also:

International community must urgently address needs of tens of thousands of people trapped between Jordan and Syria

Syria: “Nobody wants to live near a hospital in Aleppo”