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Syrian refugees dying in harsh conditions at closed Jordanian border
[RUDAW.NET] Syrian children and the elderly are dying from lack of water, food, and medical care at the Jordanian border, which officials closed in late June after a suicide boom-mobileing killed six soldiers. Aid groups are calling for the international community to take urgent action to save lives. "Tens of thousands of people are in need of urgent assistance in a border area between Syria and Jordan. They are living in extremely harsh conditions in a desert area known as 'the berm'. The vast majority are women and kiddies, who are seeking sanctuary from the ongoing violence in Syria," stated the aid agency International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) on Wednesday. Medical aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) has called for the urgent medical evacuation of those who need life-saving health care, which they can provide at the Ramtha government hospital five kilometres away where they opened an emergency trauma surgery. "The closure of the borders means that the most vulnerable victims of the conflict ‐ those badly injured by the war ‐ no longer have the chance to survive," Luis Eguiluz, head of mission in Jordan for MSF, said on Wednesday. Jordan closed the border and declared it a militarized zone after seven of its soldiers were killed in a suicide kaboom on June 21. It has blocked all food and medical aid from crossing the border where some 70,000 Syrians, including 30,000 children, are gathered. Limited water supplies are permitted across the border but the situation is now so desperate that some people are returning to war-ravaged Syria, Gerry Simpson of Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... told Al Jazeera. Posted by: Fred 2016-07-23 |
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