AL-HOL, Syria: They survived the Daesh group’s crumbling “caliphate” by a thread, but skeletal babies streaming into this displacement camp in northeastern Syria now face a race against malnutrition.
Truckloads of gaunt women and children fleeing Daesh’s last stand in the Euphrates Valley disembark daily at the Al-Hol camp, including 200 who arrived Thursday.
“They’re just skin and bones when they get here,” Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) paediatrician Dr. Antar Senno told AFP at a makeshift clinic in Al-Hol.
They have suffered desperate conditions in the last pocket held by Daesh near the village of Baghouz, close to the Iraqi border, with little food, water or medicine.
KRC workers quickly scan the infants — particularly those under a year old — for thin limbs, taut and dried-out skin, or signs of diarrhea, said Senno.
“The team combs the entire reception tent. If they see a case that could be malnutrition, they immediately pull the child aside and put him in an ambulance,” he said.
But the journey does not end there.
Medics at Al-Hol, which has been flooded with more than 25,000 displaced people in recent weeks as military operations ramped up, do not have the capacity to treat severely malnourished children and must send them on to hospitals in the city of Hasakah an hour away.
That makes every moment even more precious, said Senno.
“They’re practically dead when they get here. But if we can catch them and send them to hospital in Hasakah, we can save their lives,” he said.
“It’s not about the same day. It’s about the same minute.”
More than 37,000 people have fled the shrinking Daesh-held enclave in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces bear down on the jihadists.
Many walk for days in the desert to reach an SDF-run collection point, where they are screened, provided with some food and water and loaded into trucks for the hours-long journey north to Al-Hol.
But that desert odyssey can be deadly — at least 35 newborns and infants have died either en route to the camp or just after they arrive, according to the United Nations.
One camp worker told AFP he saw women tumble out of trucks cradling lifeless babies, not knowing they had died on the road.
Three-month-old Ahmad had a close call, said his Iraqi mother, Istabraq.
“I was breastfeeding while in Baghouz but it wasn’t enough,” the 22-year-old said.
They escaped 20 days ago and were brought to Al-Hol.
“He was in really bad shape so, when we arrived here in the camp, they took him straight from the reception area to the hospital,” she told AFP inside her tent.
She was allowed to accompany him to Hasakah for the day but has not been authorized to return.
Authorities at Al-Hol have imposed tight security measures amid fears jihadists could be posing as fleeing civilians.
“If they could let me out, I just want to breastfeed him once,” she said.
Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) can be life-threatening for children, particularly infants who could literally waste away.
Across war-ravaged Syria, 18,700 children under five are suffering from SAM, according to the World Food Programme.
The KRC told AFP it had transferred dozens of SAM cases from Al-Hol to Hasakah in recent weeks, including 29 currently being treated there.
But infants can become malnourished even after they arrive at Al-Hol, said the Mar Ephraem medical charity, which operates a children’s clinic in Al-Hol.
Women streamed into the clinic on Thursday, placing sniffling infants on a measuring board then on a small scales to check if they were stunted or underweight.
“If they are suffering from chronic diarrhea and dehydration, we send them to the hospital immediately,” said nurse Marah Al-Sheikhi.
“It’s extremely urgent. If you’re an hour late, that makes a difference to a malnourished child,” she told AFP.
On Thursday, Mar Ephraem ordered one baby’s emergency transfer to the hospital.
Three-month-old Yaqin had arrived in Al-Hol over a week ago, carried by her mother, Shamaa.
“We’ve been here 10 days but her weight keeps going down, not up. She has diarrhea and is vomiting,” said Shamaa, 23, pacing anxiously as she waited for an ambulance to Hasakah.
“Now I found out she has severe malnutrition. I’m so scared for her,” she said, cradling Yaqin, who was so weak she was not even crying.
Barely alive after Daesh, Syrian babies haunted by malnutrition
Barely alive after Daesh, Syrian babies haunted by malnutrition
- Medics at Al-Hol, which has been flooded with more than 25,000 displaced people in recent weeks, do not have the capacity to treat severely malnourished children
- Across war-ravaged Syria, 18,700 children under five are suffering from sever acute malnutrition
Israel must face consequences over Gaza campaign: UN experts
- “Israel continues to face no real consequences, largely due to protection offered by its allies”
- Israel has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable
- The experts highlighted alleged crimes against humanity committed by Israel “including murder, torture, sexual violence, and repeated forced displacement amounting to forcible transfer”
GENEVA: United Nations rights experts on Monday said Israel must face the consequences of “inflicting maximum suffering” on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, alleging Israel was defying international law and being sheltered by its allies.
“International humanitarian law comprises a set of universal and binding rules to protect civilian objects and persons who are not, or are no longer, directly participating in hostilities and limits permissible means and methods of warfare,” the 11 experts said in a joint statement.
“Rather than abide by these rules, Israel has openly defied international law time and again, inflicting maximum suffering on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory and beyond.
“Israel continues to face no real consequences, largely due to protection offered by its allies.”
The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
That resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
The experts highlighted alleged crimes against humanity committed by Israel “including murder, torture, sexual violence, and repeated forced displacement amounting to forcible transfer.”
They also noted alleged war crimes including “indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects... the use of starvation as a weapon of war” and “collective punishment.”
They said civilians were protected persons and did not constitute military objectives under international law.
“Acts aimed at their destruction in whole or in part are genocidal,” they added.
The experts called for urgent, independent and thorough investigations into alleged serious violations of international law.
“Israel’s continued impunity sends a dangerous message... Israel and its leaders must be held accountable,” they said.
The experts said they were particularly alarmed by Israel’s operations in the northern Gaza Strip.
Since October 6 this year, Israeli operations in Gaza have focused on the north, with officials saying their land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
“This siege, coupled with expanding evacuation orders, appears intended to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation,” the experts said.
UN rights experts are independent figures mandated by the Human Rights Council. They do not therefore speak for the United Nations itself.
The 11 experts included the special rapporteurs on internally displaced persons; cultural rights; education; physical and mental health; arbitrary executions; the right to food; and protecting rights while countering terrorism.
Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, was also among the experts.
Israel has demanded her removal, branding her a “political activist” abusing her mandate “to hide her hatred for Israel.”
Two killed in Gaza as aid convoy looted: WFP
- WFP said “coordinated movement to bring in 40 trucks on behalf of humanitarian partners” Sunday “was faced with violent, armed looting, resulting in the deaths of two”
GAZA STRIP: Two people have been killed in northern Gaza as gunmen attacked an aid convoy, the World Food Programme said Monday, prompting Hamas to accuse to UN agency of having failed to coordinate security.
Gazans face dire conditions after nearly 15 months of war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with humanitarian agencies repeatedly warning not enough aid was reaching Palestinians in need due in part to looting as well as Israeli restrictions.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that “a coordinated movement to bring in 40 trucks on behalf of humanitarian partners” on Sunday “was faced with violent, armed looting, resulting in the deaths of two.”
“Amidst the armed looting, five trucks of commodities were lost,” it added.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that “a catastrophic mistake” by the WFP “claimed the lives of two citizens and injured dozens with bullets.”
“We hold it fully responsible and demand that it not violate the protocol followed regarding coordination to secure aid trucks,” the statement said.
The WFP said in its statement that for the past two weeks, “nearly every movement of aid through crossings in south and central Gaza has resulted in violence, looting and tragic deaths due to attacks and the absence of law and order along convoy routes inside Gaza.”
The organization said that it was still following “procedures of coordination set in place in previous months” and that it had “repeatedly warned of the dangers of movement in the absence of law and order” in the Palestinian territory.
For months, both Israel and aid agencies including the WFP have noted widespread looting by armed gangs, as well as civilians desperate for supplies.
Humanitarian agencies also say the delivery routes they take through Gaza are sometimes blocked by Israeli military activity.
Aid organizations have repeatedly warned of the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, saying civilians are starving and that aid shipments in recent months have been lower than at any time during the war.
East Africa’s IGAD envoy to visit Sudan
- Visit comes a year after the government in Sudan froze relations with the regional bloc and suspended its membership of the body
NAIROBI: The East African bloc bloc’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development envoy to Sudan said Monday he planned a visit to the war-torn country next month where he is trying to act as a mediator. It comes a year after the government in Sudan froze relations with the regional bloc and suspended its membership of the body.
Sudan has been mired in a brutal conflict since April last year, with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — commonly known as Hemeti — fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
IGAD had repeatedly attempted to mediate between the two warring generals, but to no avail.
In January, the bloc invited Dagalo to a summit in Uganda, prompting a furious response from the Foreign Ministry in the army-aligned government.
It accused IGAD of “violating Sudan’s sovereignty” and setting a “dangerous precedent,” saying it would suspend its membership of the bloc.
IGAD special envoy to Sudan Lawrence Korbandy confirmed on Monday that a visit to Port Sudan was planned in the new year. “I’m visiting them to talk to them about issues related to peace in that country,” he said from Nairobi, declining to give details over who he might meet.
Korbandy said the visit had been scheduled for December before being postponed to January. He labeled the suspension a “minor problem” — noting that Sudan was a founding member of the regional body — and said the proposed visit was “absolutely” a positive step.
“I’m looking for constructive dialogue regarding the peace in Sudan, and most importantly is the return of Sudan’s activities in IGAD,” he added.
“My mandate is to bring peace to the Sudanese people, and there is no other way, only to talk to all the parties in this conflict.”
More than half of Syrian children out of school: Save the Children to AFP
- Overwhelming majority of Syrian children also in need of immediate humanitarian assistance including food
DAMASCUS: About half of school-age children in Syria are missing out on education after nearly 14 years of civil war, Save the Children told AFP on Monday, calling for “immediate action.”
The overwhelming majority of Syrian children are also in need of immediate humanitarian assistance including food, the charity said, with at least half of them requiring psychological help to overcome war trauma.
“Around 3.7 million children are out of school and they require immediate action to reintegrate them in school,” Rasha Muhrez, the charity’s Syria director, told AFP in an interview from the capital Damascus, adding “this is more than half of the children at school age.”
While Syrians have endured more than a decade of conflict, the rapid rebel offensive that toppled president Bashar Assad on December 8 caused further disruption, with the UN reporting more than 700,000 people newly displaced.
“Some of the schools were used as shelters again due to the new wave of displaced people,” Muhrez told AFP.
The war, which began in 2011 after Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters, has devastated Syria’s economy and public infrastructure leaving many children vulnerable.
Muhrez said “about 7.5 million children are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.”
“We need to make sure the children can come back to education, to make sure that they have access again to health, to food and that they are protected,” Muhrez said.
“Children were deprived of their basic rights including access to education, to health care, to protection, to shelter,” by the civil war, but also natural disasters and economic crises, she said.
Syria’s war spiralled rapidly from 2011 into a major civil conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
More than one in four Syrians now live in extreme poverty according to the World Bank, with the deadly February 2023 earthquake bringing more misery.
Many children who grew up during the war have been traumatized by the violence, said Muhrez.
“This had a huge impact, a huge traumatic impact on them, for various reasons, for losses: a parent, a sibling, a friend, a house,” she said.
According to Save the Children, around 6.4 million children are in need of psychological help.
Muhrez also warned that “continued coercive measures and sanctions on Syria have the largest impact on the Syrian people themselves.”
Syria has been under strict Western sanctions aimed at Assad’s government, including from the United States and European Union, since early in the war.
On Sunday, Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa expressed hope that the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump would lift sanctions.
“It’s very difficult for us to continue responding to the needs and to reach people in need with limited resources with these restrictive measures,” she said.
Israel UN envoy warns Houthis risk sharing same fate as Hamas, Hezbollah
- Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians
NEW YORK: Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations issued on Monday what he called a final warning to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants to halt their missile attacks on Israel, saying they otherwise risked the same “miserable fate” as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria’s Bashar Assad if they persisted.
He also warned Tehran that Israel has the ability to strike any target in the Middle East, including in Iran, adding that Israel would not tolerate attacks by Iranian proxies.
Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire in Gaza.
“To the Houthis, perhaps you have not been paying attention to what has happened to the Middle East over the past year. Well, allow me to remind you what has happened to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to Assad, to all those who have attempted to destroy us. Let this be your final warning. This is not a threat. It is a promise. You will share the same miserable fate,” Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told the UN Security Council.
Speaking before the meeting, Danon told reporters: “Israel will defend its people. If 2,000 kilometers is not enough to separate our children from the terror, let me assure you, it will not be enough to protect their terror from our strengths.”
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Houthis that Israel was “just getting started” following Israeli strikes on multiple Houthi-linked targets in Yemen, including Sanaa airport, ports on the country’s west coast and two power plants.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under attack by Israel. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said.
Israel’s elimination of the top leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah and the destruction of their military structure along with Assad’s collapse represent a succession of monumental wins for Netanyahu.
Briefing the Security Council meeting, Assistant UN Secretary General for the Middle East Khaled Khiari reiterated grave concern about the escalation in violence, calling on the Houthis to halt attacks on Israel and for international and humanitarian law to be respected.
“Further military escalation could jeopardize regional stability with adverse political, security, economic and humanitarian repercussions,” Khiari said.
“Millions in Yemen, Israel and throughout the region, would continue to bear the brunt of escalation with no end.”
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, while condemning Houthi missile attacks on Israel, also criticized Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Yemen, as well those by what he called the “Anglo-Saxon coalition” of US and British warships in the Red Sea, saying they were “clearly not proportional.”
