167 families flee Syria’s Rukban in 2022 due to dire conditions – SOHR
DARRA, Syria (North Press) – About 167 families have left Rukban camp, on Syrian-Jordanian border during 2022, fleeing catastrophic conditions resulting from a siege imposed be Syrian government on the camp, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Sunday.
SOHR said, in a report, in the current year, due to the siege, three children lost their lives, including a three-year-old girl, who suffered from meningitis, a baby girl, who suffered from poor health conditions, and a six-month-old boy who died of fever.
The Rukban camp was established in 2014, and it is a house for more than 12.000 displaced people (IDPs), most of them came from the countryside of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Homs and Hama governorates.
Since 2018, the camp has been suffering from a severe siege by the government forces, following the closure of the Jordanian border.
The camp is run by Syrian opposition factions, supported by the US-led Global Coalition, and is located in al-Tanf area. The area is located east of Homs Governorate, south Syria, and is a home for a strategic military base of the Coalition, as the region extends on a territory that has common borders with both Iraq and Jordon.
The children died due to the lack of medicines in the camp and the victims’ families were prevented from taking their children to neighboring areas to receive treatment, according to SOHR.
In addition, most of the children in Rukban camp are illiterate because of the dreadful living conditions, as many of them left schools and turned to work, according to the report.
Due to harsh conditions and the lack of healthy and clean water, deadly diseases have alarmingly prevailed in the camp, affecting children.
SOHR called for keeping innocent civilians away from military and political actions and transporting children and patients to neighboring countries to receive treatment.
It also stressed that Syrian civilians in the camp have the right to obtain food, drinking water and medical care.