Over a third of civilians cut off from aid in the eastern Aleppo are children. The war has taken an especially heavy toll on children. How has the war affected Aleppo’s children? “An attack on a hospital is an attack on the tens of thousands of civilians who rely on its medical care to keep them alive,” says Mark Schnellbaecher, the IRC's director of the Syria crisis response. “It is clear that until the international community is able to hold accountable those responsible for these abuses, nothing can be done to protect civilians. Even before the recent outbreak of violence, there were thought to be only 31 doctors to care for a quarter million people.Īll told, over the past five years, there have been more than 400 attacks on medical facilities in Syria. There are no hospitals operating in eastern Aleppo. Civilians have no access to trauma care and fear the slightest illness or injury. The vast majority of new arrivals are women, children or the elderly, who told the IRC that many younger men had either refused to leave Aleppo or were detained as they attempted to flee the city. Up to four families are sharing each building, and in one case 16 people were found living in a single room. IRC aid workers responding to the crisis report that many are staying in the town and its outskirts in unfinished buildings without heat, toilets or running water. In the past week, around 4,000 Aleppo residents among the tens of thousands who managed to escape the city have arrived in Al Dana, a town in Syria’s eastern Idleb province. By November 2016, some 250,000 Syrians were pinned down by clashes between government forces in western Aleppo and rebels controlling eastern neighbourhoods.Īfter bombings began to intensify in November, food and medicine were cut off, and the last local hospitals were destroyed, Civilians huddled in basements in fear of “bunker bombs.” One 24-year-old Syrian man living in eastern Aleppo described the city as a “ghost town” where airstrikes make it extremely dangerous for anyone to leave their homes. Here’s a closer look at the situation.Īlthough Aleppo was largely spared from violence in the first months of the conflict, fighting broke out in July 2012. Tens of thousands of people have fled Aleppo as Syrian government forces take control of eastern areas of the city following months of besiegement and aerial bombardment.
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