Ailing Syrians evacuated from besieged Damascus suburb
Aid workers hope dire situation improving with removal of first group of severely ill people from besieged Eastern Ghouta.
Aid agencies have evacuated another 29 critically ill people and their families from Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Syria’s capital Damascus that has been under government siege.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Syrian Arab Red Crescent collaborated in the evacuation of 85 civilians in total, according to a press release by Syrian Arab Red Crescent released on Friday.
The patients included 17 children, six women and six men, Syrian Arab Red Crescent said, adding that all of them were suffering from life threatening conditions that require advanced hospital care and treatment.
The evacuation also included transfer of their families which included 17 children, 31 women and eight men, it added.
Eastern Ghouta is home to about 400,000 people that has been under a government-imposed siege since 2013.
Evacuation deal
The evacuation took place under a deal that was been reached between aid agencies and the Syrian government.
Children comprise about half of the population in Eastern Ghouta, which is one of the last Syrian rebel strongholds.
Medical supplies and food have been in short supply in the area.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the Syrian army’s advance against rebels in the northwest involved bitter fighting and intense air strikes by Russian warplanes on Thursday and Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
Fighting killed dozens on Friday and is concentrated in the village of Abu Dali in southern Idlib, after weeks of incremental government gains in adjacent areas of Hama province, SOHR said.
