The Assad regime has begun moving residents of the Damascus suburb of Moadamiya to Idlib province under a UN-sponsored evacuation deal. Residents of the district were forced to agree to the deal after years of crippling siege and indiscriminate bombardment by regime forces, which have employed the same tactic in other Damascus suburbs and in Homs province.
Moadamiay is home to around 45,000 people who have been subjected to besiegement by regime forces for over three years. Regime snipers stationed on rooftops surrounding the district used to fire at civilians trapped inside, killing and injuring dozens.
The evacuation began on Wednesday as hundreds of residents were transported to the rebel-held Idlib province.
Member of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Mohammed Jojah on Wednesday said that the mass forced displacement operations carried out by the Assad regime, which amount to war crimes, risk causing an all-out sectarian war with unpredictable and dire consequences on the security of the entire region. He said that these operations are being carried out with political and military cover by Russia, with Iran benefiting from the situation and sending more and more militias to Syria.
Jojah criticized the international community’s failure to take action against the Assad regime’s policies. He said that apart from shy calls by some friendly countries to put an end to the regime’s policy of mass forced displacement, the international community has not yet assumed its responsibility to put an end to crimes of the Assad regime and its allies. (Source: Syrian Coalition)