Syrian lives saved by app that sends warnings
British Government gives backing to technology that gives early notice of warplanes’ arrival
THE warning sent to Abdulkarim al-ismail’s Facebook came just before the warplanes flew overhead and dropped their bombs. He knew he had eight minutes at most to move his wife and two children down to the basement. When the thud came, it was even closer than he had calculated.
His neighbour had not seen the message and – missing the crucial window between life and death – was killed in the front room of his home.
Mr Ismail, a teacher in the city of Saraqeb in the northern Syrian province of Idlib – the country’s last-remaining rebel-held territory – has for years relied on the warning system to stay alive.
It works by detecting aircraft using remote sensors and machine-learning algorithms, which look at the speed of an aircraft and its usual flight pattern. It then sends alerts via messaging apps Telegram, Whatsapp and Facebook to the White Helmets civil defence workers and civilians, as well as setting off air raid sirens in areas likely to be affected.
The British Government has announced more support for the technology, which has been developed by the start-up Hala Systems, as fears grow of a government offensive to retake Idlib.
“The message tells you everything, from where the warplanes took off, to where they think they will hit, to how long they will be and where the danger areas are,” Mr Ismail, 38, told The Daily Telegraph. “You can even find out if they are Russian or if they are Syrian.”
The British Government says the technology has already helped warn more than two million people since it was launched three years ago and is estimated to have reduced casualties by up to 27 per cent.
“Civilians in Syria were already providing a sort of human warning system before our technology, acting as ad hoc spotting planes and sending messages to their communities,” said John Jaeger, chief executive of Hala, likening it to the British farmers who would phone friends in London after spotting Luftwaffe planes during the Second World War. “What we did is just make this more dependable and more structured,” he added.
There are fears for the oppositionheld province, where it is thought the Syrian government and its Russian backers are about to launch a largescale offensive.
Some 2.7 million people are packed into Idlib, which is under the control of a mix of moderate rebels and jihadists.
There is no safe route out, with the province surrounded on three sides by pro-government forces and a closed Turkish border to its north.
Two dozen doctors working in Idlib with the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM) delivered a message last month to Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary.
“I gave a letter to Mr Hunt pleading with him to protect hospitals and civilians from air attacks and the use of chemical weapons,” Hamish de Bretton-gordon, an adviser to UOSSM, told The Telegraph.
“He responded to us saying that they would do all they could to achieve this.”