Civilians in regime-besieged neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo have faced severe bread shortages since Saturday after airstrikes forced all bakeries to close down. Local activists said that tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced as a result of the ongoing onslaught by the Assad regime and Russian forces as well as the Iranian-backed foreign militias.
The Syrian civil defense corps said that over 750 civilians have been killed in Aleppo in over 2,000 airstrikes and 7,000 artillery shells on the city and its countryside since November 15. The victims included at least 70 civilians who were killed in airstrikes while trying to flee the eastern neighborhoods. Regime forces have detained at least 200 civilians who fled to the regime-held parts of the city, the civil defense added.
“Only three bakeries are still functioning to meet the needs of thousands of city residents,” said Najib Ansari, a civil defense official based in Aleppo. “The bakeries don’t have the capacity to meet the needs of civilians in eastern Aleppo,” he added. “Few local residents are able to benefit from their services.”
“Most other bakeries have been bombed or have had to shut down due to an acute lack of baking flour,” Ansari added. “The only three bakeries remaining were supposed to have distributed bread on Saturday, but failed to do so due to intense airstrikes.”
“Not a single loaf of bread has been baked in the last five days,” he added.
Civil defense official Baybars Meshaal said that nearly 50,000 people have been displaced inside Aleppo over the past three days, adding that the residents of eastern Aleppo live in constant panic due to the relentless bombardment on the rebel-held areas.
President of the Syrian Coalition Anas Abdah on Wednesday sent a letter to the 15-member group of friends of the Syrian people as well as to international and regional organizations to press for stopping the brutal bombing campaign by the Assad regime and Russian air forces.
Abdah called for urgent action to save the people of Aleppo from the ongoing genocide. He warned of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster having serious political, humanitarian consequences for the Syrian people and the peoples of the region. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office + Anadolu Agency)
