A Call for Relief Agencies to Operate in Besieged and Liberated Areas

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

November 17, 2013

For months, relief activities of the Syrian Red Cross and Red Crescent have ceased in the Damascene eastern and western Ghouta and in the province of Dara’a in the south. Since then, relief organizations have been focusing their efforts solely on areas under control by the Assad regime.

In a letter received by the Syrian Coalition, the Unified Medical Office of eastern Ghouta affirmed that Syrian, as well as international relief agencies, have not been able to enter the area for months. The letter also highlights the deteriorating humanitarian situation as volunteers find it impossible to treat or evacuate the wounded. The lack of basic foods also makes the most vulnerable civilians, women and children, prone to all kinds of endemics and diseases.

The Syrian Coalition calls on international relief organizations to push for unfettered access to besieged, as well as liberated areas, in Damascus, Dara’a, Homs, and other Syrian provinces. We must not forget the urgency of this request, as a large number of civilians with treatable wounds die due to lack of medicine and proper equipment in these areas across Syria.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.