07/11/2013, 00.00
SYRIA
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Aleppo, the rebel blockade causes the population to protest, "we are hungry"

The siege of anti-government militias in neighborhoods controlled by the regime prevents the arrival of food and medicine. The start of Ramadan tightens control in some areas of the city, while the population, exhausted, asks rebels to loosen their grip.

 

(AsiaNews/agencies)- The protest of the citizens of Aleppo has been sparked against the blockade imposed by the rebels on the districts controlled by the government. "We lack food and medicine", shout the inhabitants of the neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr, "the people want an end to the blockade". According to the Syrian Observatory for human rights, protests against the scarcity of basic necessities began early Tuesday, July 9, when dozens of protesters gathered near a check-point. In the protest, one demonstrator has allegedly been killed, struck by a bullet in the head; it is still unclear whether he was shot by the rebels themselves or by an army sniper.

One woman was pushing a pram full of shopping bags in the Ashrafiyeh district, controlled by the regime. "I came to buy food", she explained in a video uploaded in recent days by the Centre for human rights, "We have nothing, children are dying of hunger. My son is sick and needs medicine and food."  The beginning of Ramadan (yesterday in Syria, Wednesday, July 10), has tightened the control of the Islamist fringes on certain areas of the city, creating a rift within the rebel front. They sustain that this is Islam and that whoever does not respect it is an apostate, but is not true", explains a combatant in another video clip from the Syrian Observatory.

The World Health Organisation, together with international NGOs, is trying to persuade both sides to allow humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, in Damascus, a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that "a meeting is planned with United Nations officials to remedy to the humanitarian emergency".

Aleppo, Syria's second city in geographical size and importance, has been the objective of the rebel offensive for about a year. However, some of the neighborhoods still remain under the control of the military regime, which, strong off Hezbollah aid and galvanized by the reconquest of Al Qusair, last month launched a massive counter-offensive in the central region of the country.

 

 

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