French Humanitarian Workers Shed Light on Situation in Besieged Eastern Aleppo

Aleppo is the long-suffering city of Syria which the representative of France to the United Nations compared to Sarajevo and Guernica on September 25. Sputnik met with the people involved in the humanitarian help in Aleppo.

According to reports, more than 200,000 people live in the eastern part of Aleppo which is still in the hands of the rebels. 1.2 million people reside in the western part and the media doesn’t have much information about those civilians living in the government zone.

Pierre le Corf, founder of the NGO called “We are superheroes,” has been helping the population of the west of Aleppo for more than six months.

He was stunned by what he saw and expressed his anxiety to Sputnik regarding the current situation in the city.

“Every day in front of my eyes people are dying, children are dying, whole families perish and all the while there is no word about it. Hospitals are being bombed and still there is no word about it! What to do?” Corf exclaimed.

He mentioned the sharply contrasting situation in the areas which are under the government control with those that are rebel controlled.

“There are schools, universities which are still open and the youth goes there despite the bombing. People open shops despite the shelling,” the founder of the NGO told Sputnik.

He further said that he has met families from both the areas and some families travel for eight hours from one area to another just to visit a doctor.

Krista Armstrong, a representative of the International Red Cross (ICRC) for the Middle East, confirmed that people from the eastern side of the city sometimes look to take refuge in the government zone.

“Thousands of families were forced to move to the western part of the city, people sometimes live in unsanitary conditions, residing with at people’s homes or just living in schools and public institutions. They are very vulnerable,” Armstrong said.

The representative said that providing people with first aid items is still a great problem in the area because it is difficult to reach those civilians. She said that since April there has been no access to the eastern part of Aleppo.

Talking about the rebels who have taken control of the area, Corf told Sputnik that al-Nusra has blocked the majority of humanitarian aid convoys.

“They [al-Nusra] do not allow the convoys not only because they have a monopoly on water and food in the occupied areas. Those who live there do not get it for free. They have to pay a lot to al-Nusra, who feeds off the money of those who are living in the besieged city. In addition, those who want to leave are forced to do so without the humanitarian convoys,” Corf said.

He further mentioned the actions of the government forces, such as in Homs, which together with the support of the United Nations is enabling the rebels to leave the besieged areas.

“At their disposal there are so-called green buses in the occupied areas, where al-Nusra has agreed to surrender. They are evacuated to a safe place, in Idlib. They are allowed to take with them personal weapons, machine guns such as Kalashnikov before arriving in Idlib. Heavy weapons are not allowed to be taken,” Corf concluded.