Humanitarian Aid Delivered in the City of Douma after Failed Attempts

A young boy watching the crossing of IRC trucks delivering humanitarian aid in the city of Douma. A young boy watching the crossing of IRC trucks delivering humanitarian aid in the city of Douma. Bassam Khabieh/Reuters

14 March 2018

Food and medical supplies for 12,000 civilians have been unloaded in eastern Ghouta as bombings stop for the first time in 10 days

On March 9, humanitarian convoys were able to deliver food supplies in the Syrian city of Douma, located in the besieged region of eastern Ghouta. It was the third attempt of the week to get aid to civilians trapped in the region. The convoy consisted in 13 trucks containing food supplies for 12,000 people and it completed the plan to deliver nutrition, medical and food supplies for 27,500 civilians that partly failed on March 5 due to intense shelling.

The operation was possible thanks to the first day of apparent calm from bombings carried out by Russian-backed government forces in 10 days. Nevertheless, shelling broke out again once the convoy entered the city. This incident adds up to a well-known pattern of increasing attacks on health facilities that has characterized the Syrian civil war, as reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In fact, attacks on health facilities in the first two months of 2018 amount to more than half of all attacks taken place in 2017.

The dire life condition of 400,000 people living in the besieged enclave has led the international community to call for a 30-day ceasefire. The measures have so far not been implemented, although the Resolution 2401 was adopted unanimously by the Security Council on February 24 to allow Humanitarian Aid delivery. The capture of eastern Ghouta would probably represent the biggest victory for Bashar Assad in seven years and the worst setback for the rebels since the loss of Aleppo in 2016. The United Nations is expecting for authorization for covering all the 70,000 civilians affected by the conflict in Douma.

 

To know more, please read:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/03/1004642

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/air-raids-hit-syria-eastern-ghouta-aid-convoy-enters-area-180309092028527.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43343266

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/03/08/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-ghouta-icrc/icrc-aid-convoy-for-syrias-eastern-ghouta-postponed-idUSKCN1GK0SK

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/eastern-ghouta-aid-convoy-postponed-heavy-shelling-180308073843615.html

https://www.voanews.com/a/aid-convoy-syria-ghouta-postponed/4285582.html

https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sc13221.doc.htm

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