UN: 269 health centres destroyed in Syria

Some 269 hospitals and health centres have been bombed in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, the UN announced yesterday.

UN Special Rapporteur Dainius Puras stressed the right of everyone to access health care. Speaking during a briefing in Geneva he added that 757 health and medical staff had been killed since the start of the Syrian conflict, describing the deaths as “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

Citing figures provided by Physician for Human Rights (PHR), a New York based NGO, Puras pointed out that 60 per cent of hospitals were closed in whole or in part as a result of the attacks.

Elise Baker of PHR, who also spoke at the briefing, said: “The systematic and widespread assault on hospitals and doctors which is orchestrated mainly by Syrian government forces has cut off access to health care for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Syrians.”

She added that since the conflict began in 2011, PHR has documented 382 attacks on 269 separate medical facilities through to June. Some 90 per cent were carried out by Syrian government forces or allied Russian forces, citing evidence from video footage and photographs analysed by weapons experts.

Abd Arrahman Alomar, a paediatrician who works for the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) in opposition-controlled areas, reported to the representatives that “there are 30 doctors who are still inside the eastern Aleppo city,” They lack equipment and emergency medicines for treating the many trauma cases and there is only enough fuel to run hospital generators for 20 days.

The group documented more than 280 people killed in the last three days in eastern Aleppo, with 400 wounded, including 61 children, on Sunday alone.

Puras appealed to the international community, calling for the identification of those responsible for these attacks and to bring them to justice, saying: “It is difficult to achieve a lasting peace without holding people accountable for the serious violations.”