Towns and villages of rural Hama have been subjected to intensifying aerial bombardment by the Assad regime’s air force which is using the incendiary white phosphorous in the bombing of the region. Local councils in the region warned of a humanitarian disaster should the bombing campaign continues.
Local news networks and activists said that the Assad regime’s fighter jets and helicopters bombed the towns of Kafarzeita, Al-Arbaeen, and Latamina in northern rural Hama with the white phosphorus, an internationally banned weapon. Nearby towns and villages came under artillery shelling.
Hama Governorate Council, the health and education directorates in Hama province, the Syrian Civil Defense Corps, and the local councils in southern rural Hama issued a statement warning of an imminent “humanitarian disaster” threatening the lives of over 70,000 people trapped in southern rural Hama. The statement called on international organizations to provide humanitarian and medical assistance to the people trapped in the region.
Around 25,000 people have already fled southern rural Hama in April as a result of the intensifying bombing campaign by the Assad regime and the advances its forces have recently made on two villages in the region, the statement added. There is an estimated 1,360 cases of malnutrition among the trapped civilians and more than two thousand patients in need for urgent health care.
Residents of southern rural Hama have been cut off from humanitarian aid amid deteriorating essential services. The statement called on the United Nations and the UN Security Council to shoulder their responsibilities and stop the “genocidal campaign” and put an end to the siege on the region.
The Syrian Coalition earlier said that the Assad regime and its backers believe only in military solution, calling on the international community to stop showing total inaction and activate the international mechanism to hold perpetrators of war crimes in Syria to account.
The Coalition underscored that holding war criminals to account, chiefly among them is Bashar al-Assad and his clique, is key to reaching a political solution based on the formation of a Transitional Governing Body (TGB). Accountability for war crimes is also essential to the restoration of stability, ensuring the return of refugees, and the elimination of the threats posed by the sectarian militias and other terrorist organizations and groups. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
