Syria’s Towns of Kafraya and Foua, Worsening Humanitarian Tragedy

IDLEB, (ST)- The Syrian towns of Kafraya and al-Foua in Idleb Province have been besieged for almost three years by Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization and its allied groups. More than 8000 civilians are living under tragic humanitarian circumstances in the two towns which are being exposed to daily terrorist shelling causing the martyrdom and wounding of civilians plus the destruction of houses.

The already deteriorating humanitarian situation in the two towns became even worse as the only hospital in the besieged town of Foua has become out of service since 2016. As a result, many patients and wounded people were martyred due to lack of medical treatment, equipment and medicines.

 However, the humanitarian tragedy of Kafraya and Foua hasn’t stirred the conscience of the countries and organizations which claim that they want to protect the Syrian people despite the many letters sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates to the UN chief and president of the Security Council urging them to condemn the crimes committed by the terrorist organizations and their supporting countries against civilians in the two towns.

Under the three-year tight terrorist siege, the people of the two towns have struggled to live depending on the medical and food aid as well as the vaccines dropped by planes, because the Turkish-linked terrorist groups have prevented the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) aid convoys from entering the towns to deliver humanitarian and medical aid to the citizens and to evacuate the patients with serious health condition.

According to civilians, who were recently evacuated by SARC from the two towns because of their serious health condition, there are still tens of people who suffer critical health condition and need urgent treatment to get their lives saved. The evacuees said the locals can’t go to their agricultural lands to harvest their crops because of sniper shooting and rockets fired by the terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and its affiliated groups.

On February 20, 2018, SARC managed to evacuated five patients from Kafraya and Foua and moved them to a hospital in Lattakia. The patients’ condition was critical because they didn’t get necessary treatment while they were inside the besieged towns.

Hamda Mustafa