Samstag, 28.12.2019 / 20:12 Uhr

Jahresausklang in Syrien

Von
Aus dem Netz

Hunderttausende sind inzwischen in Idlib auf der Flucht, so sieht ihre Realität aus:

In the olive groves of north-west Syria, tarpaulin sheets stretched across barren trees do little to keep out the sleeting rain.

The families huddle for warmth as the temperatures drop to nearly zero degrees celsius. Babies are bundled in coats and blankets, the adults burn wood and use up the last of their dwindling gas supplies. 

They are among the 235,000 people who have fled air strikes and shelling elsewhere in Idlib province in recent weeks. The exodus was triggered by ramped-up Syrian and Russian attacks on some of the most densely populated areas of the country’s last-remaining rebel bastion.

So many have fled in such a short period that even the sprawling makeshift tent cities that abut the Turkish border are now full, forcing thousands to sleep out in the open.

Aid agencies warn the situation is untenable and is now threatening to turn into one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the eight-year war. (...)

The bombing campaign has killed more than 5,262 civilians, including 246 children, since April, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group. More than 100 of whom died in the last week.

Russia and China last week vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have allowed aid to continue flowing to Idlib. The UN, US and its European partners have been able to do little other than issue statements of condemnation.

“It seems that 2019 was the year the international community and the UN completely abandoned Syria and politicians have even run out of words of condemnation,” said Raed Al Saleh, head of the White Helmets civil defence this week. 

“My biggest fear as the year comes to a close is for the attacks to intensify further, causing new waves of displacement because there is nowhere left for people to run to. Every olive tree has become a tent and every camp has exceeded its capacity ten times over,” he said.