PHOTO: Waiting outside the medical clinic in Moadamiya (Abu Kanaan a-Dimashqi)
Hundreds of residents have waited for hours for medicine in besieged Moadamiya, southwest of Syria’s capital Damascus, but have been turned away because of the lack of basic supplies.
Local journalist Muhammad Nour told Syria Direct, “This is a scene that is repeated every day.”
Umm Hussam, a widow with six children, said after waiting in vain for treatment for her 14-year-old asthmatic son: “I looked down at my child. I saw how he was suffering and fading before my eyes and I couldn’t give him anything.”
She said, “[I] wish for death for myself and my children in one fell swoop just so we can finally be free from the specter of slow death that haunts us is our town.”
Moadamiya has been cut off by the Syrian military since late 2012. Despite a truce in early 2014, following the starvation to death of more than 100 people, the regime has continued to restrict food, medicine, and other supplies. The blockade was tightened on the 45,000 residents this year — amid scores of barrel bombs by regime warplanes — as the Syrian military cut the road to nearby Darayya, where residents are also facing starvation and lack of medical care.
See Syria Feature: Appeal by Women of Besieged Darayya — “There is No Food”
The February 27 cessation of hostilities that went into effect in late February mandated “sustained delivery of assistance” to seven blockaded areas and towns in Syria, including Moadamiya. However, only two aid shipments arrived, and the second did not include medicine or medical supplies.
“The medical supplies that arrived were generally good in terms of quality, but supplies have of course dwindled since then,” Dr. Rashid al-Wazaan, a surgeon at the medical center.
The center only has three kinds of antibiotics and the painkiller paracetetamol.
Wazaan said 25 residents have died due to a lack of food and medicines since late 2015.
