Vice-president Nagham al-Ghadiri calls on the United Nations and international relief organizations to act urgently to save 250,000 civilians trapped inside Deir Ezzor. ISIS has laid siege to the city for nearly seven months, amid severe power outage and scarcity of food which can only feed 25% of the residents, according to a report issued by the “Together to Lift Siege of Deir Ezzor” campaign.
The campaign said that ISIS tightened the siege on the city after closing all entry points and preventing the smuggling of food and medical supplies. The situation has worsened further with the regime forces’ reduction of food supplies allocated to the trapped civilians. The campaign recorded the death of two infants as a result of the lack of infant formula, an 11 year old child and a 53 year old woman as a result of hunger.
“The United Nations, just as it has adopted a resolution forcing Assad to grant access to commission, can take measures to force the entry of relief aid all besieged areas in Syria, most notably Al-Waer district in Homs, Eastern Ghouta and Zabadani in Rural Damascus in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution 2139,” Ghadiri said.
She also calls for passing a UN resolution to force the Assad regime allow relief organizations to use Deir Ezzor air base for the transfer of humanitarian aid and for the evacuation of trapped civilians from the besieged neighborhoods. She demands that the Assad regime remove all restrictions on the evacuation of civilians, especially prevention of men aged 16-45 years from leaving the city and forcing them to pay high sums of money to get out of the siege. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
