WHO calls for immediate and unimpeded access to save lives in eastern Ghouta, Syrian Arab Republic
12 November, 2017, Cairo, Egypt -- Up to 400 000 people remain besieged in eastern Ghouta in Rural Damascus, where they face deteriorating humanitarian, health, and security conditions. More than 240 people require urgent advanced medical care, including 29 priority patients (mostly children) in critical condition who need immediate medical evacuation.
“The situation is heartbreaking,” says Ms Elizabeth Hoff, WHO Representative in Syria. “For months, the people of eastern Ghouta have been subjected to sustained deprivation, restrictions on humanitarian access and serious human rights violations. We have now reached a critical point, where the lives of hundreds of people, including many children, are at stake. If they do not immediately get the medical care they urgently need, they will most likely die.”