A report issued by
“Together to break the siege of Deir EzZor” Campaign”
Since 05/01/2015, the neighborhoods under the control of the Syrian Regime are subjected to a dual siege imposed by the Organization of Islamic State and the Syrian Regime. The humanitarian situation became worse and it’s on its way to become the biggest humanitarian disaster since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2011.
Living Conditions:
Organization of Islamic State continues its siege on over 300 thousand civilians, half of them of women and children inside the neighborhoods subject to the control of the Syrian Regime. The organization of Islamic State prevents the entry of foodstuffs to those neighborhoods as well as preventing people from entry and exit under penalty of accountability where the organization of Islamic State objects cars loaded with foodstuffs and killed drivers and arrested many others.
The siege led to the shortage in foodstuffs, whereas the campaign recorded a lack of basic staples
Rice.
Clarified butter.
Sugar.
Edible oil.
Baby formula.
Various vegetables.
Prices frantically rose to reach 1500% more than the purchasing power of civilians inside these neighborhoods. Syrian Regime exploited that siege, whereas security officers began to sell some of their food rations at exorbitant prices. Officers of the regime provide full protection for merchants associated with them, whereas they are allowed to control prices and sell food rations (Already scarce, and reaches the city by planes that land in Deir Ez-Zour airport) at high prices.
The campaign also documented several cases of fainting as a result of the siege (7 cases in Samir Aziz Primary School in besieged neighborhoods of Jura – 5 cases in the university housing of female students inside besieged neighborhoods). The campaign also documented the first death of an infant (Jude Alhussein) under starvation, whereas the food provided to children in besieged neighborhoods is limited to bread dampened with water. The campaign also documented the drowning of Suhail Alqatea on 01/04/2015 when he tried to cross the waters to the territories under the control of the organization of Islamic State to bring some foodstuffs to his child and his wife.
on 30/03/2015, the regime began to prevent civilians from getting out of the city and obliged every civilian who wants to travel to the besieged neighborhood of Albaghliah to bring some vegetables available in this neighborhood (Since there are some farms in this neighborhood) to leave his ID card to the barrier of the regime as a means to prevent them from abandoning the city.
On 31/03/2015, the regime allowed some patients to leave the city as long as they have a proof of their health condition and only accompany one person. The patient, after passing the barrier, has to walk about 3 KMs on foot across informal roads under the risk of being sniped by the individuals of Islamic State until reaching to Alhawaiej and then take ships, if available, to the other end of the city (Algeneina village) and thus he could avoid the barriers of the Islamic State around the city.
Syrian Authorities are involved in the siege of those neighborhoods whereas they refused several requests from the Red Cross delegation to use Deir Ez-Zour Airport that is subjected to the control of the Syrian Authorities to intervene in these neighborhoods. On 13/04/2015, the regime retreated from the ban as a result of great pressures that it allowed the Red Cross in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to enter a food shipment that contains 10 tons of rice and 10 tons of clarified butter. This food shipment is enough for only 20% of besieged civilians. Until the date of issue of this report, the Red Cross hasn’t distributed any food rations and no additional aid convoy entered.
The campaign warns that the regime may repeat its style in dealing with the aids provided by the humanitarian organizations by the seizure of hundreds of rations and distributing it to its individuals and the individuals of the national army, or even sell such rations at inflated prices. To avoid such problem, we shall ask the Red Cross Delegation to directly supervise the distribution of the food rations.
The campaign also documented the availability of rice and butter at some merchants associated with the Syrian Regime, whereas those merchants sell the aid convoy to civilians after entry to the besieged neighborhood.
Public sector employees in the territories under the control of the Islamic State suffer from ceasing their salaries since the start of the siege due to preventing them from entering the city by the Islamic State.
Syrian Security individuals assault civilians by severe beating during their gathering to buy some foodstuffs (already few) that the regime permits the merchants to bring them into the city and sell them at exorbitant prices.
On the other hand, the regime imposes a siege on the territories under the control of the Islamic State whereas the regime closed the road of Deir Ez-Zour/Damascus from Tadmour Gate which led to food shortages and a chaos in prices in such territories.
Water and Electricty
Since 25/03/2015, besieged neighborhood witness a full supply outage that led to the outage of drinking water supplies whereas the water stations inside these neighborhoods are no longer able to function. That crisis exacerbated by the lack of fuels and their high prices. The price of one liter of Kerosene reached 1800 SYP and the price of one liter of Gasoline reached 2000 SYP and the price of one liter of Diesel reached 1800 SYP.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent ceased providing aids and the Islamic State prevented organizations from doing their job. This led to the depletion of Chlorine liquid used in sterilization of drinking water, forcing workers of water stations to use Sodium Hypochlorite or powder Chlorine as an alternative to sterilize drinking water. It’s expected for those alternatives to run out during a maximum period of one month, which may lead to the spread of hepatitis, typhoid and cholera.
Medical situation in the province (territories under the control of the regime as well as those under the control of the Islamic State):
Drugs began to deplete from pharmacies in the territories under the cotrol of the regime as a result of the siege. The regime continuously secures state hospitals to treat wounded individuals in battles.
The campaign documented a lack of medicines for several chronic diseases:
Diabetes.
Hypertension.
Kidney.
Asthma.
The campaign also documented the spread of diseases such as jaundice, lice and scabies due to water outages, lack of cleaning supplies and scarcity of medicine whereas the campaign documented that the Syrian regime closed some primary schools to prevent the widening of the spread of such diseases.
On the other hand, the Islamic State made a decision on March 2015 to prevent medical organizations from operation in territories under its control; it closed some hospitals and medical centers while allowing others to operate under his direct supervision.
Closed hospitals and medical centers:
Field Hospital in Boqros
Primary health care center in Boqros
Primary health care center in Alboulel.
Primary health care center in Alqoriyah.
Women’s hospital in Alqoriyah.
Field Hospital in Alqoriyah
Alresalah Forum.
Hospitals and medical centers that are no longer supported continued to provide their services based on their stock and aids from residents:
National Hospital of AlboKamal.
Part-time Aisha Center.
Health Care Center in AlboKamal.
Kidney department at the National Hospital of Hajin.
Modern Medicine Hospital in Almyadeen.
National Hospital in Almyadeen.
Primary Health Care Center in Almyadeen.
Mohsen Field Hospital.
Primary Health Care Center in Alasharah.
Primary Health Care Center in Sabikhan.
Taianah Clinics Center.
Shaheel Hospital.
Taqwa Hospital in Hatlah.
Kesra Hospital.
Primary Health Care Center in Alkharitah.
Dar Aisha.
Pharmecs Hospital (The hospital works with the support of Islamic State where it treats the wounded.)
The decisions of Islamic State to prevent medical organizations from working led to:
1- Lower absorptive capacity of hospitals and medical centers that continued to operate at 50%.
2- An acute shortage of drugs for diabetes, tuberculosis and kidneys dialysis sessions.
On 13/04/2015, the campaign documented the death of 1 year old child Taha Al-Yousef from Der Ez-Zour; displaced to AlbuKamal, as a result of severe inflammation of the intestines and the absence of specialists and that most hospitals and medical centers are out of service. 144 patients of kidney diseases at territories under the control of the Islamic State suffered as a result of the lack of kidney dialysis sessions.
Such siege only affected civilians since the regime provide its needs of foods, drinks, medicines and weapons by means of its planes that land in Deir Ez-Zour Airport.
Accordingly, the campaign condemns such silence on a humanitarian disaster that is imminent and calls the international society represented by the United Nations to put pressure on the regime to deliver the aids and lift the siege on the province of Deir Ez-Zour. It also calls local and national media and human rights organizations and everyone that sanctifies human right to live to work together to end the suffering of besieged in Deir Ez-Zour.
“Together to break the siege of Deir Ez-Zour” Campaign.
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