Aleppo's remaining doctors urge President Obama to intervene

Desperate medical staff in rebel-held Aleppo have penned an emotional letter urging Barack Obama to help save hundreds of thousands of the city's vulnerable civilians.

MENA

3 min read

The New Arab

11 August, 2016

Around 250,000 civilians are being besieged in Aleppo's rebel-held east [Getty]

The last remaining doctors in rebel-held east Aleppo have urged US President Barack Obama to help rescue the 250,000 civilians stuck in the war-ravagged city.

A letter signed by 29 medical professionals warned that if attacks on medical centres continue at the current rate, there will likely be none left by September.

"Last month, there were 42 attacks on medical facilities in Syria, 15 of which were hospitals in which we work," the letter read.

"Right now, there is an attack on a medical facility every 17 hours. At this rate, our medical services in Aleppo could be completely destroyed in a month, leaving 300,000 people to die".

As a solution, the doctors called upon the US president to impose a no-fly zone over the city to prevent further strikes by the Syrian regime and its allies.

Meanwhile, Russia has said that its forces will allow a three hour window each day for aid to pass into the embattled city.

A Russian defence ministry briefing said that all military action would be paused between 10:00 (07:00 GMT) and 13:00 (10:00 GMT).

This move was slammed by the United Nations as inadequate to help the millions in need of humanitarian aid. The international body appealed for a 48-hour ceasefires to allow the flow of aid.

Two weeks ago, four newborn babies gasping for air suffocated to death after a blast cut the oxygen supply to their incubators. Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun.
- Syrian doctors

Since July, Aleppo's east has been besieged by Assad loyalists, who have received aerial support from Russian war planes.

According to the UN, attacks on civilian infrastructure in Aleppo have left over two million people without running water or electricity.

This is likely to worsen the health outlook of the city's residents, who are already struggling with medicine supplies that are "running dangerously low".

The shortage of medicine and equipment in Aleppo's besieged areas is spoken of in the doctors' letter, where they describe the stark choices they are forced to make every day.

"What pains us most, as doctors, is choosing who will live and who will die. Young children are sometimes brought into our emergency rooms so badly injured that we have to prioritize those with better chances, or simply don't have the equipment to help them," the letter says.

"Two weeks ago, four newborn babies gasping for air suffocated to death after a blast cut the oxygen supply to their incubators. Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun".

In recent days, violence in Aleppo has escalated as rebels attempted to break the seige by cutting off the Syrian army's main supply line to the west of the city.

Fighting between government forces and rebels in Aleppo has generally intensified over the past month. Both sides have been sending in reinforcements for an all-out battle that could mark a turning point in the five-year war.