ALEPPO // More than 50,000 Syrians joined a growing exodus of terrified civilians from east Aleppo as the United Nations Security Council was set for emergency talks on the fighting in the city.
As government forces pressed on with their assault on the divided city, regime artillery fire killed at least 26 civilians in east Aleppo on Wednesday.
Civilians poured out of the besieged rebel-held east, but faced air strikes and heavy artillery fire by advancing regime forces.
After one mortar attack, the motionless body of a girl was left crumpled in the street, her arm severed and her head pierced by a sliver of shrapnel. Rescue volunteers carried her body away on a motorcycle.
Hundreds also massed in the newly recaptured neighbourhood of Jabal Badro to board government buses heading to west Aleppo.
“The situation of those fleeing is desperate,” said Pawel Krzysiek, head of communications for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria.
Syria’s Red Crescent is offering assistance in government-held areas, but does not yet have access to east Aleppo.
Regime forces and their allies have seized a third of the rebel-held sector of Aleppo since launching their offensive to retake the city just over two weeks ago. They now fully control the north-east and are advancing on the he Sheikh Saeed district on the southeastern edges.
As the UN security council gathered for an emergency meeting on Wednesday, a leading Syrian opposition body demanded the UN act immediately to protect the civilians of Aleppo,
In a letter to the UN, the head of the National Coalition, Anas Al Adeh wrote, “The regime of (Bashar Al-) Assad and its allies have turned the liberated areas of Aleppo into a coffin. This escalation is a war crime and a crime against humanity, another item on the Assad regime’s long, bloody, barbaric list.”
Earlier this week, Russian representatives held talks in Ankara with Syrian rebels opposed to President Bashar Al Assad over the possibility of a truce in Aleppo.
Russia is Assad’s main international ally and has played a crucial role in the battles for Aleppo.
Those involved are linked to the opposition Syrian National Coalition and do not include jihadists from the Fateh Al-Sham Front, the new name for Al-Nusra Front after it severed ties with Al-Qaeda.
Turkey is also pressing an unprecedented military incursion inside Syria, backing pro-Ankara rebels as they fight IISIL jihadists and a Kurdish militia, but has been noticeably muted in its criticism of Russian actions in Aleppo since a deal to normalise ties with Moscow in June.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met Riad Hijab, head of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, on Wednesday, to discuss “efforts to stop the fighting immediately and to deliver humanitarian aid as soon as possible” to Aleppo, according to diplomatic sources.
The UN has for months sought access to the east, but a plan it presented earlier this month to deliver aid has yet to be approved by the Syrian government.
Syria’s opposition National Coalition said it was working with France on a draft UN resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo, though regime ally Russia was likely to veto such a proposal.
* Agence France-Presse
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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