MSF concerned about Syria fuel crisis due to ISIL blockade
MSF concerned about Syria fuel crisis due to ISIL blockade
A medical aid agency has expressed deep concern about a fuel blockade imposed by the Takfiri ISIL terrorists in northern Syria that is hindering humanitarian relief activities.
“Many health facilities and aid organizations have had to stop or significantly reduce their activities because of the lack of fuel to power generators and for transportation,” Dounia Dekhili, the Syria program manager for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), meaning doctors without borders, said on Sunday.
The ISIL terrorists have reportedly closed a checkpoint under their control near Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo to trucks transferring fuel to northern parts of the crisis-hit country.
Hospitals in some Syrian cities, including Hama, Idlib, Aleppo and Latakia, are in danger of closure due to fuel shortage and “the lives of many Syrians are at even greater risk,” Dekhili added.
“Fuel is needed to power pumps for drinking water [and] incubators for newborns and to run ambulances.”
The MSF manager also said the agency had provided some fuel to health facilities, but it has only a “short-term impact.”
“We therefore call upon all parties to the Syrian conflict to allow regular fuel supplies within the country to meet the massive and immediate needs of the population,” Dekhili noted.
The ISIL controls a number of oil wells and refineries in eastern Syria and northern Iraq. The terrorist group relies on oil as a source of income among other things, including the smuggling of antiques out of the two countries.
