Aleppo: Woman’s death in Wheelchair shames the world

Aleppo: Woman's death in Wheelchair shames the world

The slow tragic death of an elderly woman in East Aleppo due to completely lack of medical care highlights the sickening silence of the world, as Assad regime and his allies commit the most horrible crimes every day.

The Assad regime forces, backed by Russian air power, Iranian ground forces and Shi’ite militia fighters from Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, has been tightening its grip on rebel-held districts of Aleppo since the start of this year.

They achieved their first goal in encircling the eastern parts of Aleppo in September, trapping more than 275.000 civilians under daily bombardment and preventing any aid from entering.

Since three weeks, they started a wide military operation to force control again over the rebel-held areas and were able to retrieve 85% of the region.

Civilians were directly affected by the operations as more than 1500 civilians died since September. Helicopters continue extensively dropping barrel bombs in conjunction with airstrikes by warplanes on areas in the eastern neighborhoods of the city, accompanied by artillery shelling.

Assad regime offensives since September have left more than 1500 civilians killed, according to a war monitor and civil defense teams.

Assad regime bombardment targeted the vital point in Aleppo, the hospitals, and civil defense centers. After heavy bombardment no hospitals were left in eastern Aleppo, adding a new suffer and making the victims’ numbers increase.

The complete absence of medical care, starvation forced by the siege and daily bombardment led hundreds of civilians to slow tragic death, while the global powers condemned the offensive and asked to stop it, while not mentioning any real steps their countries are willing to do to make this happen.

Images of civilians who died while trying to flee the killing circulated the social media.

One of the first incidents happened on December 1, as the civil defense sources told.

Bodies of dead civilians, who were killed while trying to flee to western Aleppo, were lying uncollected in the streets of one neighborhood because the intensity of the bombardment made it too dangerous to retrieve the dead.

“Today there was another massacre, I witnessed it. The displaced people were coming at 6:30 am. There was artillery shelling while they were walking in the streets. Really, it was so, so horrible,” said Aref al-Aref, a nurse, and photographer in a rebel-held part of the city.

Footage sent by the Civil Defense rescue operation, purportedly of the aftermath, showed people lying in the street in pools of blood, including a woman dressed in black who had been carrying a large backpack.

Another shocking incident was for an elderly woman in Eastern Aleppo who died in her wheel chair this week as her husband sought medical aid in a part of the city where all hospitals have been bombed

The woman, who was identified as Sabah Mohammed on social media, died in the deserted Alsha’ar neighborhood in besieged Aleppo, before it was captured by Assad regime forces.

The husband, who is photographed crying and kneeling at the feet of his wife, spoke about the destruction of his house and the disappearance of his seven children, while he wasn’t able to get any medical care of his wife.

He pushed her in the wheelchair trying to get her to safety only to make her last breaths in the way.

The fate of these civilians spells the abject failure of the west’s contradictory and piecemeal policies. It is a humiliation for the UN and the whole world who stood watching while Russia and Assad did all they can to give these civilians a suffering life and a tragic death.