Pandemic: UN investigators call for ceasefire in Syria

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“The Covid-19 pandemic poses a deadly threat to Syrian civilians. It will strike indiscriminately and will be devastating for the most vulnerable in the absence of urgent preventive action, "said Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry this Saturday.

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UN investigators for Syria on Saturday (March 28th) called for a ceasefire in order to " avoid making the disaster worse " when the first cases of people infected with the new coronavirus are listed in the country, ravaged by nine years of war.

Syria has so far reported five cases of contamination with the new coronavirus. " To avoid the looming tragedy, the parties must heed the call of the United Nations Secretary-General and the special envoy for a cease-fire, on pain of condemning large numbers of civilians to death, however avoidable, ”said the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, Paulo Pinheiro, in a statement.

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A tattered health system

The war in Syria, which has claimed more than 380,000 lives, has weakened the health system considerably. Only 64% of hospitals and 52% of primary care centers that existed before 2011 are operational, while 70% of health workers have fled the country, according to the World Health Organization.

This dramatic situation is due " largely to the pro-government forces that systematically target medical facilities ", according to the commission. " The attacks on medical structures, facilities, hospitals and emergency workers must stop immediately, " she demands.

The pandemic particularly threatens the 6.5 million displaced Syrians in the country, including more than a million civilians, mostly women and children, who are crammed into camps along the Turkish border in the province of 'Idleb.

► Read also: In Idleb, an “increasingly significant presence of influenza-like illness”

They live with limited access to healthcare or clean water, in an area where dozens of hospitals have been taken out of service by bombing and fighting.

Humanitarian NGOs also fear a health disaster in the Syrian regime’s overcrowded prisons.

(with AFP)

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• Syria
• UN
• Coronavirus

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