Secretary-General of the Syrian Coalition Abdel-Ilah Fahad appealed to friendly and sisterly countries to step up support for the Syrian interim government to enable it meet the urgent needs of the people who were displaced from Alwaer district and are arriving in northern rural Aleppo.
Fahd said that Russia and Iran bear direct responsibility for the forced displacement of the local population of Alwaer district, stressing that Russia’s actions in Syria contradict its role as guarantor of the cease-fire agreement.
Fahad underscored that the mass forced displacement aimed at bringing out demographic change in Syria amounts to “war crimes,” adding that such tactics are a clear violation of the cease-fire agreement signed in Ankara on December 29, 2016.
The ceasefire agreement called for parties to the conflict not to try to seize new territory, allow unhindered humanitarian access to the besieged areas and complete the cessation of hostilities.
On Tuesday, the second batch of civilians displaced from Alwaer, comprising around 393 families, departed from the besieged district to the town of Jarablus in northern rural Aleppo. The first batch left on March 18 and arrived two days later at a camp erected near Jarablus.
The mass forced displacement of residents of Alwaer followed a violent military campaign by regime forces that began in early February and continued until early March. Hundreds of civilians were killed and injured in the most violent airstrikes on the district since the outbreak of the revolution in March 2011. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)