Ban Ki-moon has used his farewell address to the UN general assembly to denounce the “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack” on a UN food relief convoy which killed at least 20 people. Aid officials said the convoy was hit from the air while food was being unloaded at a warehouse in opposition-controlled Urem al-Kubra. But Moscow has not conceded that the convoy was hit by an airstrike, claiming instead that the 18 lorries had “caught fire”. In a statement on Tuesday, the country’s defence ministry said that the aid convoy had been accompanied by a militants’ pickup truck armed with a heavy mortar gun, Russian news agencies reported. Failing to protect humanitarian workers and structures might have serious repercussions on humanitarian work in the country.”Omar Barakat, a victim of the aid convoy attack.

Source: The Guardian September 20, 2016 09:22 UTC