Humanitarian Disaster in Muadamiyah, Rural Damascus

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

October 1, 2013

The Assad regime continues to besiege and attack Muadamiyah, rural Damascus, systematically starving the people to death. Assad has intensified his killing campaign by decimating entire residential blocks to the ground, killing dozens of civilians and forcing the rest to escape for their lives.

Muadamiyah has now been under siege for 280 days. More than 700 people have died in the town. Hospitals and schools no longer function due to continued shelling. Eight mosques in the town were hit, and Assad’s forces are systematically destroying buildings, starting from the edges of the town and moving towards the center.

The lack of basic food supplies in the town has caused the death of four children and three women. Water is not drinkable due to the shelling on artesian wells and main water storage tanks.

Thousands of families under attack in Muadamiyah and other towns across Syria now face death due to starvation. The Syrian Coalition calls on the international community to assume responsibility towards these besieged areas in Syria. Humanitarian corridors must be established, and international relief agencies and humanitarian organizations must be given unfettered access. Muadamiyah as well as other areas across Syria require basic food deliveries as well as other humanitarian needs for the thousands of people facing hunger and starvation.

The Syrian Coalition, in this regard, appreciates the efforts of the President of the UN Security Council, Gary Quinlan, as well as the efforts of other members of the Security Council, in putting pressure towards sending a firm demand to Assad to allow immediate access for humanitarian aid into areas in need 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.