Damascus Countryside(Ward Mardini)
Five kilometers west of the capital Damascus, that is all what separate the United Nations teams from tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside the city of Muadamiyat al-Sham, and they even can hear their cries under the explosive barrels and rockets that hit the city by the Syrian regime forces .
Assad's forces and his militia, have forced unmerciful siege on more than forty thousand people in the city, to separate them from the city of Darya, after the great success of their deadly method of (siege and starvation) .
Assad regime aims to separate the two cities to isolate them from each, so that it will be easier for its forces to deal with each city separately, but what the medial sources reveled predicts a crisis worse than the one occurred in the town of Madaya a few days ago.
Baladi News was able to communicate with the only medical center in the city, which is administered by doctor Omar, who in turn confirmed that six civilians died of starvation and diseases, after the closure of the crossing, after Assad's forces had tightened the blockade of the city completely for nearly a month ago.
The doctor revealed that three of the deaths in the city, were from the so-called (PWD) group (people who have mental and physical disabilities), while the remaining three deaths occurred to infants, and they died because neither milk was available nor any kind of baby food.
The last of these cases was the child "Yusef Saadia," when Assad's forces rejected his family plea to get him out of the city to receive treatment .
Doctor Omar says: "The first effects of the siege appeared on patients who had undergone a continuous treatment in a specific pace, and they had a particular system of treatment and food, the second most affected group were (infants).
He adds: "There are about 1,500 people suffering from chronic diseases in the city as heart disease, diabetes, and their health conditions are associated with the continuity of using medication, which is completely non-existent as a result of the suffocating siege".
" As for chronic diseases like cancer, renal failure, there are about 25 cases , and we don’t have the ability to treat them at all, because of lack of dialysis machines, nor we have the needed pharmaceutical and chemical or radiation doses".
Danny Qabbani, an activist , journalist and aid worker , said to Baldi News: regime forces have tightened the siege of the city since 2012, and within this period nearly 20 civilians pronounced dead, and that forced people to accept a truce imposed by the regime on 25/12/2013.
After that, the regime made it easy for civilians to return to their city, until the number reached 45 thousand people, making the city the biggest prison for rebels' incubators. "
And in order to implement a policy of starvation and imprisonment on as many people as possible in the city, Assad's forces kept in that period ,the city's crossing open to the capital Damascus, and only allowed people to bring food in small quantities barely enough for daily basis, and prevented the entry of all kinds of medications, even personal medications that civilians use for their personal daily heath needs.
Al Qabbani adds: "In late 2014 the United Nations and the Red Crescent entered the city, and brought four thousand shares of food to more than 30 thousand people, in addition to epilepsy and lice medications, and regime forces confiscated the medical and pharmaceutical aid despite several attempts from the United Nations .
last month, Assad's forces imposed an initiative through Rafik al-Moussawi ,the owner of " myadeen" news channel , in addition to several officers from the Fourth Division.
The initiative was based on two options : to either surrender and hand over the weapons and accept a full settlement, or to evacuate the city from civilians and rebels, as happened previously in Homs ",
The threat tone was clear, and the city was threatened to either starve or surrender and this is what we are witnessing these days .
However , People of Moadamieh did not accept these conditions and considered them a ( defeat) and then the regime began its barbaric campaign against the city, closing the only crossing to Damascus with sand and concrete barriers and prevented civilians from leaving the city, and that included school students and government's employees .
And during a period of 20 days, the city has witnessed the death of six civilians, as they tried to break the siege.
Om Leen , a woman trapped inside the city, her child suffers severe malnutrition as a result of the blockade, the women says: "me and my husband tried to get out of the town, but security forces prevented us, and one of the officers told us: go and die of starvation as the people in Madaya , your fate is death because you are in rebel-held area, and for every person killed in the city battles, we will kill instead a hundred starved people, after begging at our feet.
And the rest of activists and medical staff inside the city, cannot do anything for the 40 thousand civilians trapped in a big prison, including several hundreds of chronic conditions, most of them elderly and children, waiting for the United Nations teams to get them out or provide ambulatory treatment before it's Too late.
