Physicians for Human Rights Demands Access for All Humanitarian Aid to Besieged Syrian Area

(PHR) – A week after the UN Security Council unanimously passed resolution 2401, demanding an end to hostilities in Syria to ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian convoys, the assault on eastern Ghouta continues and the Syrian authorities have reportedly stripped medical supplies from the only convoy allowed into this besieged area so far. Physicians for Human Rights issued this statement attributable to Susannah Sirkin, director of international partnerships and policy: “Let’s be absolutely clear: blocking medical supplies and aid to civilians and wounded combatants is a gross violation of humanitarian law and a war crime which is resulting in the preventable illness and death of countless men, women, and children. Throughout the conflict, the Syrian government has used its control over humanitarian supplies to deny food and medical treatment to hundreds of thousands of people – even, at times, stripping humanitarian convoys to besieged areas of critically needed medical supplies, including UNICEF kits to treat severe acute infantile malnutrition.

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