{"id":13467,"date":"2018-09-01T05:23:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T05:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13467"},"modified":"2018-09-01T05:23:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T05:23:33","slug":"idlib-assault-may-spark-humanitarian-calamity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13467","title":{"rendered":"Idlib assault \u2018may spark humanitarian calamity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT:Its hospitals are battered, residents heavily dependent on aid and escape routes to neighboring Turkey sealed. If attacked by regime forces, Syria\u2019s opposition-held Idlib is poised for a humanitarian calamity.<\/p>\n

\nThe northwestern province, which lies along the border with Turkey, has been held since 2015 by the extremist-led Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance and other rival rebels.<\/p>\n

\nIdlib and slivers of adjacent provinces form the largest remaining block of rebel territory \u2014 and the next expected target of Syrian President Bashar Assad\u2019s troops and their Russian allies.<\/p>\n

\nBut a military assault could overwhelm already struggling health facilities, cut off food and medical supplies to desperate civilians, and prompt massive levels of displacement, the UN has warned.<\/p>\n

\nUN chief Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday he was \u201cdeeply concerned about the growing risks of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cA worst-case scenario in Idlib will overwhelm capacities and has the potential to create a humanitarian emergency at a scale not yet seen through this crisis,\u201d John Ging, who heads operations and advocacy for the UN\u2019s humanitarian coordination office told the Security Council this week.<\/p>\n

\nMoscow and Ankara are in talks to try to thrash out a solution that would spare the three million people living in rebel territory.<\/p>\n

\nThey include tens of thousands of rebels and civilians evacuated to Idlib from other areas recaptured by government troops.<\/p>\n

\nSince Syria\u2019s conflict erupted in 2011, more than 350,000 people have been killed, more than 11 million have fled their homes and medical infrastructure has been systematically targeted.<\/p>\n

\nIn the first six months of this year, there were 38 attacks on medical infrastructure in the province, most of them blamed on the government or its Russian ally, according to the UN\u2019s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. (OCHA).<\/p>\n

\nThe World Health Organization warned that less than half of Idlib\u2019s health facilities were still functioning \u201cacross areas that may soon witness increased violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe remaining facilities are neither properly equipped nor prepared for a massive influx of patients,\u201d said Pawel Krzysiek, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria. \u201cAny offensive will make an already precarious situation even worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nIn the event of a chemical attack on the densely populated province, hospitals will likely struggle to cope.<\/p>\n

\nWestern powers have warned Syrian troops could use toxic substances against the civilian population as they seek to recapture Idlib.<\/p>\n

\nEarlier this year, the UN began sharing the GPS coordinates of health facilities with Russia and the US in a bid to protect them but four have been struck since.<\/p>\n

\nThe UN and humanitarian groups are also deeply worried about the food, medicine and other aid they truck in through the Bab Al-Hawa and Bab Al-Salam crossings to some 2 million people in need in Idlib and adjacent areas.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cCross-border operations provided a lifeline for civilians in regard to food supplies and other daily life products needed,\u201d said Krzysiek. \u201cIf border crossings with Turkey are to shut down, hundreds of thousands of people will be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAid operations could also be disrupted if key staff are caught up in the offensive, said OCHA\u2019s spokeswoman in Damascus, Linda Tom.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe potential displacement of humanitarian staff would further contribute to gaps in the response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\nShe said violence could force as many as 800,000 people to flee in one of the Syrian war\u2019s largest displacements yet.\u00a0 The question, aid groups have warned, is where to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov of \u201cdefending the assault.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSergey Lavrov is defending Syrian and Russian assault on #Idlib,\u201d Pompeo tweeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Russians and Assad agreed not to permit this. The US sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe added: \u201cThe 3 million Syrians, who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in #Idlib, will suffer from this aggression. Not good. The world is watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAn uptick in violence is likely to push residents to the frontier en masse in the hope that warplanes will not strike there.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cPeople from Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta, Homs, Daraa \u2014 they used to be brought to Idlib,\u201d said Zedoun Alzoubi, who heads the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations.<\/p>\n

\nThose areas were handed over to regime forces in surrender deals, with many opposition fighters and civilians bussed to Idlib.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBut now people who are in Idlib \u2014 where to go?\u201d asked Alzoubi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT:Its hospitals are battered, residents heavily dependent on aid and escape routes to neighboring Turkey sealed. If attacked by regime forces, Syria\u2019s opposition-held Idlib is poised for a humanitarian calamity. The northwestern province, which lies along the border with Turkey, has been held since 2015 by the extremist-led Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance and other rival…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}