Frédéric Joli, spokesperson for the ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross, confided on Sunday April 3 on franceinfo his hope that“today” the humanitarian convoy intended to evacuate civilians “will finally be able to approach” from Mariupol, southeast Ukraine. After turning back on Friday, the 10-person Red Cross team headed back to the martyred city. “We are much closer than we were on Friday”he says. “Progress is extremely slow due to checkpoints”Russians and Ukrainians, he points out.
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franceinfo: Where is the humanitarian convoy in its attempt to reach Mariupol?
Frederic Joli: After Friday’s failure, we repeated the attempt on Saturday. It is still ongoing. The team slept on the way and are still trying to get to Mariupol knowing that we are much closer than we were on Friday when we decided to turn back. The situation was extremely volatile. In terms of security, this is not a panacea. Progress is extremely slow due to checkpoints. It is hoped that today, the team of ten people who have been toiling for three days will finally be able to approach the goal, that is to say Mariupol.
What are the main difficulties?
It is to pass the checkpoints of both parties because the situation is quite complicated on the ground. Above all, it means moving forward step by step, in extremely complex security conditions and with a dialogue that we want to be as permanent as possible with all the parties. But we are never safe from a sudden restart. So it’s an extremely complex and extremely slow progress, but which, unlike Friday, may seem a little better off since the team was planning to spend the night on the way and continue the journey this morning.
What does the humanitarian convoy look like?
It requires bus logistics. But when I speak of ten people, it is the ten people who will open the road once the convoy has been formed and the populations are inside. If we rely on what has already been done, for example, 15 days ago in Sumy, more than 3,000 people were evacuated with around 60 buses with the ICRC which was able to open the road following an agreement between the parties to the conflict.
“It is obvious that it is not in a single convoy that we can evacuate all the people with buses.”
Frédéric Joli, spokesperson for the ICRCat franceinfo
One can also imagine that the truce holding and lasting, private vehicles can also engage following the convoy. Once again, the situation is extremely volatile. And today, we are finally on the fifth attempt to evacuate Mariupol. More than 15 days ago. We had already participated in two who had already aborted.