UN urges healthcare access for Syrians

AMMAN, Oct 10, (Agencies): The UN on Wednesday urged warring parties in Syria to allow basic health service deliveries to tens of thousands of increasingly desperate Syrians trapped in the desert near the Jordanian border.

The global body’s fund for children, UNICEF, said two babies without access to hospitals had died in the past 48 hours near the Rukban border crossing.

“Once again, UNICEF appeals to all parties to the conflict in Syria and those who have influence over them, to allow and facilitate access to basic services including health for children and families,” said the agency’s Middle East and North Africa director, Geert Cappelaere. “This is the very minimum for human dignity.” The United Nations last year said an estimated 45,000 people, mostly women and children, were trapped in Rukban near Syria’s borders with Jordan and Iraq.

A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group in June 2016 killed seven Jordanian soldiers in no-man’s land near the Rukban crossing.

Soon afterwards, the army declared Jordan’s desert regions that stretch northeast to Syria and east to Iraq “closed military zones”.

The Kingdom, part of the US-led coalition fighting IS, has allowed several humanitarian aid deliveries to the area following UN requests, but the borders remain closed.

UNICEF said Wednesday that a five-day-old boy and a four-month-old girl had died in Rukban.

While one clinic on the Jordanian side of the frontier continues to treat urgent cases, the situation demands more sophisticated healthcare that is “only available in hospitals,” it said.

“The situation for the estimated 45,000 people – among them many children – will further worsen with the cold winter months fast approaching, especially when temperatures dip below freezing point in the harsh desert conditions,” Cappelaere said.

“It is time to finally put an end to the war on children. History will judge us and the death of children, preventable in many cases, will continue to chase us.”

A planned buffer zone in northwest Syria has been cleared of heavy armaments ahead of time but a new deadline loomed Wednesday for the tougher task of Turkey convincing jihadists to pull out their fighters.

The demilitarised zone ringing the Idlib region is the result of a deal reached last month between rebel backer Turkey and government ally Russia to stave off a regime assault on Syria’s last major rebel stronghold.

The accord called for a complete withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the planned buffer by Wednesday, and rebels and jihadists met that deadline a day early.

“No heavy weapons were seen in the buffer zone,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Turkey-backed National Liber-