Health disaster awaits Aleppo northern countryside due to government siege
ALEPPO NORTHERN COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – The Health Board of Afrin region, northern countryside of Aleppo, which is one of the institutions supervising the camps and villages that host the displaced people from Afrin, called on the actors in the Syrian crisis and the international community to push the security checkpoints of the Syrian government in order to lift the siege they impose on the area, and to allow the entry of medicines and basic materials.
This came in a statement which was read at Avrin Hospital in the town of Fafin, after the prevention of the entry of medical and pharmaceutical supplies reached “a critical degree.”
For about a month, the military checkpoints of the Syrian government have prevented the entry of fuel and medicine to the northern countryside of Aleppo. They have also prevented the ambulances of Avrin Hospital from transferring the critical cases to the city of Aleppo for treatment.
The region is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event that the siege continues and the entry of medicines is prevented. “We are even unable to do minor operations in Avrin Hospital,” said Dr. Muhammad Nour Shabab, co-chair of the Health Board of Afrin.
“We appreciate the efforts made by the local organizations and associations in terms of providing us with humanitarian aid, but this does not cover the health and humanitarian needs of the residents of the region and the Afrin IDPs,” Shabab added.
It is worth mentioning that the region has seven medical points of the Kurdish Red Crescent-Afrin, which provide emergency medical services along with the Avrin Hospital, which is the only one that provides medical services for free.
Shabab called on the International Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to play their role in delivering medicines to the area, “and not to allow the policies of the Syrian government to disregard the lives of the population and the displaced.”
Aleppo northern countryside which consists of several devastated villages and five camps, is home for tens of thousands of the Kurds who left their houses and properties in Afrin, northwest Syria following the Turkish invasion in early 2018.