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Displaced Syrians face hunger due to Jordan border closure: MSF

Thursday, 30 June 2016 3:15 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 30 June 2016 3:25 PM ]

The photo shows Syrian refugees, stuck on the Jordanian- Syrian border, waiting to cross into Jordan, at the Hadalat border crossing on January 14, 2016. ©AFP

Doctors Without Borders has warned of the dire situation of tens of thousands of Syrians stranded on the Jordanian border, saying the refugees face hunger because of the closure of the frontier between the two countries.

The international medical charity, known by its French acronym as the MSF, issued the warning on Thursday, urging an immediate resumption of aid deliveries to the displaced Syrians.

Benoit De Gryse, MSF operations manager, raised concerns over the situation in the border area between Jordan and Syria, known as the berm, saying it is “getting worse day by day,” with people currently receiving inadequate water.

In addition to high temperature in the region, “There are sand storms, there is no vegetation to provide shelter. The tents are often makeshift or extremely flimsy, offering no protection from the sun and the wind,” De Gryse said.

“If this continues like it is now, we will soon see starvation, dehydration and we will be confronted with preventable deaths at the berm,” he added.

The MSF official further noted that children make up about half of those stranded in the border region.

Jordan sealed the border area after a June 21 car bombing, which left seven Jordanian troops dead and 13 others wounded. The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Jordanian soldiers carry the coffin of a comrade during his funeral in the village of Nahleh, near the city of Jerash, on June 21, 2016, after he was killed in a bomb attack on the border with Syria. ©AFP

Amman has hinted that it would not lift the closure, with government spokesman Mohammed Momani saying that “the border remains a close military area.”

Daesh terrorists, who were among the militants initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Iraq and Syria. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011. Damascus says Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since March 2011. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in the Middle Eastern state, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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