Kurdish Red Crescent Arrives in Government-Besieged Areas of north Aleppo
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Days ago, a (KRC) team arrived in a government-besieged area home to Afrin IDPs in the northern countryside of Aleppo in order to provide medical care to earthquake-stricken people.
For six months, the Syrian army’s Fourth Armored Division has prevented the entry of fuel and medical supplies to the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods of Aleppo, as well as to the Shahba region in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Jiwan Heme, a doctor and KRC official, said they had arrived to provide medical care to earthquake-affected people “as this region is in urgent need for assistance in light of the government’s siege.”
They waited for four days at an internal border crossing near Manbij as the Syrian government halted any further advance, he added.
The Rojava Information Center (RIC), a volunteer-staffed information center in northeast Syria, cited a source from the Kurdish Red Crescent at the time as saying the Syrian government has demanded they hand over half of their supplies, including one ambulance, in order to pass into the earthquake-hit areas.
The KRC medical team consists of several doctors with various specialties and a mobile clinic to offer medical care to IDPs in camps and locals in the region.
The earthquake displaced thousands of people from Aleppo to five camps in Shahba.
In a previous statement, Khlousi Besso, the official in Barkhodan camp in Shahba, said that the camps do not have the capacity to receive more IDPs, which forced them to set up additional tents.
Heme said that the medical equipment they brought to Shahba region is not sufficient but might help cover a large number of victims, stressing the urgent need for assistance to this area as well as the lifting of the government embargo.