Medical workers who have finally been granted access to evacuate patients from a besieged district of Damascus in Syria say a six-month-old baby has died while awaiting rescue.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said evacuations from Eastern Ghouta continued on Wednesday as part of a deal with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Baby Katr Alnada was among those at the top of a list of 29 people suffering from critical illnesses authorised for immediate evacuation in an operation that began late on Tuesday.
But when doctors from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) arrived in Eastern Ghouta they found she was already dead. Her case highlights the extraordinary isolation of one of the last pockets of resistance near the Syrian capital, which has been subjected to a weeks-long bombing campaign.
“Katr Alnada a 6 months baby was supposed to be evacuated today in the list of urgent 29 people. When local team reached her they found that she died weeks ago,” SAMS advocacy manager Mohamad Katoub tweeted.
The group drew up the list of the 29 critically ill to be submitted to the Syrian government after consulting with local doctors on the ground as well as with the World Health Organization (WHO).
They included those suffering from heart disease, cancer, kidney failure and blood disease along with others who need surgery not available there, the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) said.
SAMS’ media and communications manager Lobna Hassairi told The Independent its team “on the ground” in Eastern Ghouta said Katr was found to be dead amid the evacuations.
Almost 400,000 people are trapped in Eastern Ghouta – one of the last strongholds of the rebels in Syria – which is surrounded by government forces and has been under a blockade for eight months.
Aid agencies struck a deal with President Assad to evacuate the 29 people – including 18 children – who are critically ill. The deal, which came after months of tense negotiations, will see armed groups in Eastern Ghouta releasing an equivalent number of prisoners. The rest of the medical evacuation group is expected to be completed in the coming days, SAMS said.
A total of 494 people were on the priority list for medical evacuations from the besieged area, the UN humanitarian adviser for Syria, Jan Egeland, said last week.
"That number is going down, not because we are evacuating people but because they are dying," he said. "We have tried now every single week for many months to get medical evacuations out, and food and other supplies in."
The United Nations has been waiting for months for the Syrian authorities to provide "facilitation letters" to allow the aid operation to get under way.
Forces loyal to Assad have carried out air raids on Eastern Ghouta, while besieged rebels have fired mortars into neighbouring Damascus.
"That has nothing to do with the right of evacuating, and obligation to evacuate civilians (and) wounded," Egeland said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
