MSF calls for an immediate halt to bombings in Aleppo

BERLIN

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called for an immediate end to the Syrian regime’s heavy bombardment in Aleppo, which has killed at least 500 people in the past two weeks.

“MSF demands that the Syrian and allied governments stop the bombing that is causing a bloodbath among civilians,” the humanitarian organization said in a press release on Friday.

MSF’s director of operations Xisco Villalonga warned about a deepening humanitarian crisis in the city, where nearly 275,000 civilians find themselves under siege.

“Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box,” he said, and pleaded for an end to the bombings.

“The Syrian government must stop the indiscriminate bombing; and Russia as an indispensable political and military ally of Syria has the responsibility to exert the pressure to stop this,” he said.

The regime’s heavy bombardment between Sept. 21 and 26 have killed at least 278 people, 96 of them children, according to MSF.

The recent airstrikes have also targeted the city’s few remaining hospitals, and on Wednesday two more MSF-supported hospitals went out of service.

“If this intensify of bombing continues, there may not be a single hospital standing in a few days,” Villalonga warned.

The hospitals that were still functioning in Aleppo this week have received more than 822 wounded, at least 221 of them children.

Abu Waseem, manager of an MSF-supported hospital, said all intensive care units were full after the recent airstrikes.

“Patients have to wait for others to die so they can be moved to an available bed in intensive care. We only have three operating theatres and yesterday alone we had to do more than 20 major abdominal surgeries,” he said in the MSF press release.

“The hospital staff is working up to 20 hours a day – they cannot just go home and let people die,” he added.

The Syrian regime ended on Sept. 19 a week-long cease-fire to begin a major offensive in Aleppo, despite heavy criticism by the international community.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the offensive on Wednesday and accused the regime and its allies of committing war crimes.