Humanitarian disaster in rural Aleppo deteriorates to unprecedented serious levels as intensive aerial bombardment continues, and regime forces approach overpopulated areas amid ongoing international community’s shameful silence
Airstrikes continue intensively on cities, towns and villages in western and south-western rural Aleppo, particularly by Russian jets. These intensive airstrikes target Al Atarib, Absamo, Urem al-Kubra, Urem al-Sughra, Kaframeh, al-Mansoura, nearby KafrNaha, nearby Kafr Nooran and other areas there, as part of Russia and the Syrian regime’s systematic policy, by escalating aerial bombardment to force more civilians to flee and therefore capturing more areas.
Those areas are overcrowded, and considered as a safe haven for displaced people, for those who have recently been displaced from Idlib and southern rural Aleppo, or who were displaced less than a year ago during the military operation in northern countryside of Hama and southern rural Idlib.
As the scale of displacement continues to increase, the humanitarian catastrophe of Syrian civilians is worsening without any reaction either from the international community or the Turkish “guarantor”, which mentions their suffering only on the media, and the problem now is where the civilians can go in such circumstances.
Many civilians are unable to flee their areas despite the approach of regime forces, because there is nowhere to go with the overcrowding of displaced people in northern and north-western rural Idlib near border with Iskenderun region. Sarmada road, from western and southwestern rural Aleppo, is jammed due to the influx of displaced people, also with severe winter condition and temperatures hitting zero.
As Turkish and Russian “guarantors” failed to fulfill their promises regarding the “de-escalation” zone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights calls on the international community to urge both the Turkish and Russian sides to spare the civilians from their military operations and to protect them from the disastrous situation caused by their military involvement in the Syrian crisis.