The United Nations called for the urgent evacuation of 500 patients besieged in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, while 400,000 civilians remain trapped under Assad regime’s bombardments.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) continue to call for the urgent medical evacuation of some 500 people in besieged eastern Ghouta in Syria.
“Eastern Ghouta remains under siege, with nearly 400,000 children, women and men in need of life-saving assistance. Civilians must be able to seek medical care,” Haq told reporters in New York on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, our health partners reported the death of a 29‑year‑old woman, who was suffering from cancer. She is the fifteenth person identified for urgent medical evacuation in eastern Ghouta to die due to a reported lack of adequate medical care.”
Haq called on “all parties to the conflict to facilitate immediate medical evacuation of the sick and wounded in a safe, timely and systematic manner, everywhere in Syria.”
Meanwhile, Nasr al-Hariri, Head of the Syrian opposition’s Negotiations Committee, expressed his disappointment over the failure of the international community to relive civilians in Syria, especially children who are trapped in eastern Ghouta.
In an event held on the sidelines of the negotiations in Geneva on Wednesday with the presence of a large number of ambassadors and diplomats, Hariri addressed the international community: “What a disappointment! What a shock and what a tragedy! He wondered whether the international community is helpless and unable to deliver bread and milk to eastern Ghouta?
In a statement on Sunday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that 137 children between the ages of 7 months and 17 years require immediate medical assistance due to kidney failure, acute malnutrition and injuries caused by the bombing. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
