Demonstrations were held in European cities and capitals to show solidarity with the people of the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta which has been subjected to ferocious onslaught by Assad regime forces and their allies over the past few days. According to international aid groups, the onslaught on eastern Ghouta has killed and injured more than 1,500 people since Sunday.
Demonstrators expressed outrage over the repeated failure of the UN Security Council to take action to stop the Assad regime’s crimes against civilians. They held Russia fully responsible for these crimes as they held signs that read ‘Russia is killing Syrian civilians.’
Demonstrators called for an immediate end to the genocide against civilians and for forcing the Assad regime back to the negotiating table. They also called for the implementation of international resolutions calling for bringing about full political transition in Syria in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2254.
Eastern Ghouta has been subjected to intensifying assault by the Assad regime forces and the Iranian militias backed by Russian aerial support resulting in mass civilian casualties.
Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Wednesday said that initial reports from MSF-supported facilities in eastern Ghouta indicated that 1,285 people were wounded and 237 others killed over the past three days, from February 18th to the early morning of February 21st.
The medical charity said that a “mass-casualty influxes, with hundreds of dead and wounded,” have been reported to the MSF-supported facilities in besieged eastern Ghouta.
“Thirteen hospitals and clinics that receive support from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have been damaged or destroyed over the past three days amid an extraordinary increase in bombing and shelling over the Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta,” MSF added.
“Meanwhile, lifesaving medical supplies urgently needed to treat mass casualties are being restricted by the ongoing siege on the area.”
Mark Lowcock, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called for unconditional humanitarian truce in eastern Gouta and across Syria. He quoted a relief worker in the Damascus suburb as saying that “the last two months, military operations turned into a process of systematic targeting of civilians.”
In a statement to the UN Security Council on the situation in Syria on Thursday, Lowcock said that “the office of the UN Special Envoy in Geneva has, just in the past three days, received thousands of messages on instant messaging applications from civilians there. They are pleading for our help.” (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
