The “Justice for Life” rights group warned a famine is about to hit besieged neighborhoods in the Deir Ezzor city as a result of unprecedented shortage in bread supplies. These parts of the city have come under suffocating siege by ISIS for over a year.
A report issued by the group yesterday explained that the besieged neighborhoods of Al-Jura and Al-Qusour have also being suffering from shortages of fuel since early December. Owners of bakeries are now buying one liter of diesel for 1,000 Syrian pounds on the black market after the Assad regime stopped subsidized supplies of fuel. This lead to soaring bread prices reaching record levels.
Meanwhile, the regime’s security services and military bases stationed inside these two districts are still being supplied with fuel.
Justice for Life group called on the United Nations mission to enforce UN resolutions regarding the delivery of aid to the besieged areas, as it did in the neighborhood of Al-Waer in Homs and Qudsaya in Damascus.
The group stressed that not only the Assad regime has no regard to the suffering of innocent civilians; it also exploits trapped civilians in many different ways. The group cited regime forces’ monopoly of fuel supplies and manipulation of food and fuel prices to their advantage.
Along with sever fuel shortages, the besieged districts of Deir Ezzor have endured complete power outage and water shortage, coupled with the regime extorting money from the-nearly-quarter-of-a-million civilians trapped inside. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
