Syrians in the besieged eastern Ghouta on the edge of Damascus have begun using U.N aid bags as shrouds for children killed in the devastating bombardment by the Assad regime, to express their frustration over the organization’s inaction.
Syrian activists shared a video of the bodies of two children as young as two years old lying on the ground wrapped in bags with the U.N. Refugee Agency logo on them after the agency failed to send an aid convoy inside the region, having been denied permission from the regime.
Many Syrians took to social media to voice their anger over the lack of action to help eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 residents who have lived under the regime siege since 2013 and are facing severe shortages in food and medicine.
An AFP correspondent inside eastern Ghouta saw hundreds of civilians on Sunday fleeing from the town of Beit Sawa in the southeast of the enclave.
The Observatory said some 2,000 civilians had fled regime shelling and clashes in eastern areas to western parts of the enclave.
“Everyone is on the road. There’s destruction everywhere,” said 35-year-old Abu Khalil, carrying a little girl in his arms wounded on the cheek.
On Saturday, 18 civilians, including three children, were killed in regime bombardment of eastern Ghouta, according to the Observatory.
At least 76 pro-regime fighters and 43 opposition fighters from Jaish al-Islam have also been killed in clashes since Feb. 25, it says.
Encircled by regime-controlled territory and unable or unwilling to flee, eastern Ghouta’s 400,000 residents have in recent weeks suffered one of the most ferocious assaults of Syria’s civil war.
Under siege since 2013, they had already been facing severe shortages of food and medicine. The region’s over-burdened medical workers have been struggling to cope with the rising number of wounded.
While falling short of a 30-day ceasefire demanded by the United Nations, Russia’s announcement of daily humanitarian pauses in fighting had raised hopes of some aid deliveries and evacuations.
A convoy of “46 truckloads of health and nutrition supplies, along with food for 27,500 people in need” would finally enter the battered enclave on Monday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
The OCHA said further deliveries would follow and that it had “approval” to help 70,000 needy residents. However, the reports later on said the regime did not grant the necessary approval for the convoy to enter the enclave.
