Freitag, 10.11.2017 / 18:36 Uhr

Hunger, Hunger, Cholera ...

Von
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken

Die erste Meldung stammt aus Syrien:

The UN has warned that almost 400,000 people in the besieged East Ghouta area, near Syria’s capital Damascus, face
“complete catastrophe”.

Jan Egeland, the senior UN official for humanitarian operations, said on Thursday that seven people have died because they were not evacuated and another 29, including 18 children, are at imminent risk.

Residents face malnutrition and even starvation because, despite a Russian-declared “de-escalation zone”, the Assad regime has continued attacks and tightened the four-year siege of East Ghouta, including the key town of Douma. Pro-Assad forces closed the last tunnel into the area in March, and in July shut down the remaining checkpoint with movement of food and supplies. Apart from one convoy of 40 trucks last week, on the opening days of political talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, the Assad regime has denied permission for aid deliveries.

Doctors have said that one person per day is dying from siege-related conditions, and the UN has estimated 1,500 children are in danger.

Die zweite Meldung stammt aus dem Jemen:

The UN's humanitarian chief has sent a chilling warning that Yemen is facing the world's worst famine in decades in which millions could die, if Saudi Arabia continues to block aid flowing into the war-torn nation.

e explained he had put proposals to the UN Security Council to ensure the resumption of aid deliveries, and if they were not achieved, Yemen would descend into famine.

"It will not be like the famine that we saw in South Sudan earlier in the year, where tens of thousands of people were affected. It will not be like the famine which cost 250,000 people their lives in Somalia in 2011. It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims."