British charity persuades Assad to allow children past blockade
Syrian leader agrees that seriously ill youngsters can leave besieged rebel enclave to go to hospital
WRAPPED up in thick blankets and woollen hats, the critically-ill children forced a smile as they boarded ambulances bound for Damascus hospitals.
For most, it was the first time they would see life outside the Syrian capital’s Eastern Ghouta suburb, which has been blockaded by government forces for four years.
Bashar al-assad’s regime yesterday allowed a handful of the most desperate patients out of the rebel-held enclave for treatment, after months of delays that left more than a dozen dead.
So far, 29 women and children suffering from heart disease, cancer, blood diseases or requiring surgery have been granted permission to leave, under a deal negotiated by the government and the opposition.
Hamish de Bretton-gordon, who advises the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations – a British charity that operates in Eastern Ghouta – said it had appealed to the Syrian regime to allow the most serious cases to leave.
“We got a good response from Assad’s office, saying he was thinking about it over Christmas and then on Dec 26 he decided to allow 29 out,” he said. “I’m not sure they would have lived otherwise.”
The first four freed included a girl with haemophilia, a baby with Guillain-barré syndrome, the auto-immune disorder, and a child with leukaemia.
One eight-year-old girl gave a thumbs-up as she waited inside a Syrian Red Crescent ambulance, wearing gloves to guard against the cold. Jan Egeland, UN humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said 494 people were on the priority list for medical evacuations submitted in November.
“That number is going down – not because we are evacuating people, but because they are dying,” he said. “We have tried now every week for many months to get medical evacuations out, and food and other supplies in.”
During a rare international aid convoy at the end of November, UN aid workers witnessed one of the worst health crises to hit the area since the conflict began in 2011.
The UN has previously described the regime’s “starve or surrender” tactic as “a weapon of war”. Some 17 patients, including several infants, have died in recent months because of the ongoing siege and lack of aid access.
Eastern Ghouta is one of the last remaining rebel strongholds in Syria and has been under a tight government siege since 2013, causing severe food and medical shortages for its near 400,000 residents.
While some food is still grown locally – or smuggled in – humanitarian access has been limited, despite regular appeals from aid agencies.
A lack of fuel and the cold winter is only worsening the hardship.
One resident told The Daily Telegraph that food shortages meant many were suffering from severe malnutrition. “Some families who have little money have only grass to eat,” said activist Wasem al-khateb.
“There is food, but it is too expensive for many. One loaf of bread can cost $25 (£18.63). I am only eating once a day, like many others.
“Every day is hell and it gets worse and worse. You can’t imagine.” Jaish al-islam (Army of Islam), the dominant rebel faction in Eastern Ghouta, said yesterday that the rebels were willing to free some government prisoners in return for the evacuations.
“We have agreed to the release of a number of prisoners ... in exchange for the evacuation of the most urgent humanitarian cases,” the group said.
Eastern Ghouta is one of the four designated “de-escalation zones” agreed by both sides of the conflict and their backers Iran, Russia and Turkey during peace talks in Kazakhstan earlier this year.
Despite this agreement, air and ground assaults have escalated in recent weeks, killing scores of innocent civilians.
The Syrian government sees Ghouta as key to regaining its legitimacy around the capital.
‘There is food, but it is too expensive for many. I am only eating once a day, like many others who are rationing. Every day is like hell and it gets worse and worse’