Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called upon that the Assad regime and its allies to halt the indiscriminate bombing that has killed and wounded hundreds of civilians—many of them children—over the past week in Aleppo.
“Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box,” said Xisco Villalonga, director of operations at MSF. “The Syrian government must stop the indiscriminate bombing, and Russia as an indispensable political and military ally of Syria has the responsibility to exert the pressure to stop this.”
From September 21 to September 26, hospitals still functioning in Aleppo reported receiving more than 822 wounded, including at least 221 children, and more than 278 dead bodies, including 96 children, according to the Directorate of Health in east Aleppo.
“All intensive care units are full. Patients have to wait for others to die so they can be moved to an available bed in intensive care,” said Dr. Abu Waseem, manager of an MSF-supported trauma hospital in east Aleppo. “We only have three operating theaters, and yesterday alone we had to do more than 20 major abdominal surgeries. The hospital staff is working up to 20 hours a day. They cannot just go home and let people die.”
Amid the onslaught and siege, hospitals are running out of supplies. “Over the last months, we have done everything we can to keep supporting the hospitals in Aleppo,” Villalonga said. “Now, with a complete siege on the city, attacks on humanitarian convoys, and intensive bombing, we are powerless.”
“Russia and the other members of the UNSC must put an end to the total disregard for humanity that is on display in Aleppo today,” Villalonga added. “The ruthless, brutal bombing must stop and urgent measures need to be put in place to allow the evacuation of the severely sick and wounded to areas where they can access adequate medical care. Anything short of this is confirmation of what many fear—that the world has abandoned the people of Aleppo.”
The United Nations on Thursday said that about 600 of the wounded in eastern Aleppo are not receiving treatment because of the shortage of medical personnel and supplies.
The Syrian Coalition’s legal committee on Friday submitted a memorandum to the UN Security Council to protest against the genocidal war the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies are waging in Aleppo. The memorandum said that the ongoing brutal onslaught on besieged Aleppo is aimed at emptying the city of its indigenous population and bringing about a demographic change.
Head of the legal committee Haitham Almalih stressed that the Assad regime as well as the Russian and Iranian invaders are committing war crimes and genocide in Aleppo through besiegement, starvation, mass forced displacement, and the use of internationally banned weapons such as white, phosphorus, napalm and most recently “bunker buster” bombs.
Russian and regime air forces are targeting, hospitals, schools, children, and women. These barbaric attacks have forced more than half of Syria’s population to leave their homes; destroyed vital civilian infrastructure, and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, Almalih added. Regime forces continue to incarcerate tens of thousands of civilians who are subjected to severe torture and maltreatment, Almalih added. (Source: Syrian Coalition)