Funding will cover life-saving assistance to those who have been wounded or forced to flee the ongoing violence in the country
LONDON (AlertNet) – The European Commission has released an emergency 3 million euros for humanitarian assistance in Syria and neighbouring countries, a spokesman for the commission said on Wednesday as violence escalated in the country.
The news came as Syrian forces thrust into the country’s rebellious city of Homs, killing as many as 100 civilians by the accounts of opposition activists.
“That’ll be funding of 3 million euros which will cover life-saving assistance to those who’ve been wounded or forced to flee the ongoing violence in the country,” the spokesman told AlertNet.
“It could provide medical stocks, expertise to hospitals and medical facilities as well as protection to people deprived of freedom, subject to access being granted by the authorities.”
The spokesman declined to specify how the aid would be delivered in Syria. He said the amount of funding was based on the commission’s assessment of what was feasible in terms of humanitarian action.
“We iterate in the strongest terms our call to all parties to respect the neutrality of humanitarian workers and organisations and to ensure the unhindered and safe access to victims of the violence,” he said.
The onslaught on Homs, one of the bloodiest of the 11-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, has not relented despite a promise to end the bloodshed that the Syrian leader gave to Russia.
Western and Arab states voiced outrage at the weekend after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Assad to give up power.
The United States said on Tuesday it was considering providing humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, but did not provide details.
On Wednesday, medical aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the Syrian government was “conducting a campaign of unrelenting repression against people wounded in demonstrations and the medical workers trying to treat them”.
"In Syria today, wounded patients and doctors are pursued and risk torture and arrest at the hands of the security services," Marie-Pierre Allié, MSF president, said in a press release. "Medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution."
MSF said improvised health clinics have been established in apartments, on farms, and elsewhere, while hygiene and sterilisation conditions are rudimentary.
The charity added that the mere possession of drugs and basic medical materials is considered a crime in Syria, and that clandestine health workers cannot obtain blood from the central blood bank, which is controlled by Syria’s Ministry of Defence, which MSF said is the only blood supplier in the country.
(Editing by Tim Large)
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