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Desperately needed medical supplies and medicines have reached the besieged town of Douma in Syria on Wednesday for the first time in 18 months, the World Health Organization said. The organization said that two of its trucks filled with medicine were a part of an aid convoy sent to the rebel-held town of Douma in the Eastern Ghouta part of Damascus on Saturday.
“It was the first time medical help had reached Douma since the siege of the area began in November 2012”, it said in its statement. The convoy was organized by the Syrian Red Crescent and several UN agencies. The convoy also brought food and other air to the town, which was struck by two air raids during the distribution of the aid, activists said. The World Health Organization added that it had sent its staff members with the convoy, and that they had spoken to the doctors in the town regarding residents who have for long suffered medical and food shortages.
Nearly half of the civilian population in Douma need medical assistance, “including urgent surgical care and life-saving treatments”, the organization said, bringing to attention to the fact that surgeons in Douma have been forced to perform operations “under extremely difficult circumstances”. The East Ghouta part of the rural Damascus governorate has seven functioning hospitals to serve a population of one million, the organization said. “Across Rural Damascus governorate as a whole, there is only one operational public hospital for every 567 200 people”, it added.
The UN Security Council had passed a resolution in February demanding aid access for people in need in Syria. The United Nations and several rights groups had said that despite the resolution, the aid was not reaching the million in need.
Syrian expats have, meanwhile, flooded their embassies all over the world on Wednesday to cast their vote ahead of the June 3rd election. President Bashar Assad faces two little-known opponents, and is widely tipped to win the poll and clinch his third seven-year term.