Two safe corridors opened for displaced Syrians at Rukban camp

Russian and Syrian coordination centers on returning refugees have managed to open two humanitarian corridors for thousands of displaced Syrians stranded in a camp near the Jordanian border to leave the site toward government-controlled areas.

“In accordance with the February 16 joint statement by the Russian and Syrian coordination centers on opening the humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of Syrians from the Rukban camp, two checkpoints at Jleb and Jabal al-Ghurab opened today,” the chief of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, Major General Mikhail Mizintsev, said in a statement on Tuesday.

He added that the Syrian refugees will be provided with voluntary, unimpeded and safe exit from the camp to places of their choice of residence within 24 hours.

“The situation in al-Rukban camp is catastrophic, and civilians are being held hostage by terrorist groups under the auspices of the United States. They are hovering between life and death. They continue to live in appalling conditions despite the arrival of humanitarian convoys to the camp,” Mizintsev said.

The Russian official added, “The camp is suffering from lack of basic healthcare. The fact is that women, children and people with disabilities do not receive the lowest level of medical assistance. Eight children suffered food poisoning last month alone.”

Russian officials have accused the US and Washington-backed militants of holding people in Rukban hostage.

“We call on the American command and leaders of illegal militant groups in the al-Tanf region to put an end to the forcible keeping of women and children, mostly affected by cold, illness and malnutrition in the camp. All of them will be given necessary assistance,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on February 15 as a humanitarian convoy of the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) delivered aid, including medical supplies and basic commodities, to Rukban.

Konashenkov added that Russia and Syria would jointly establish a temporary housing area for refugees from the camp.

The UN says about 45,000 people, mostly women and children, are trapped inside Rukban, where conditions are desperate. This is while Geneva-based international aid agency Doctors Without Borders has put the number there at some 60,000.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that US forces are unlawfully deployed to al-Tanf region in southern Syria, training terrorists, who carry out acts of terror across Syria and prevent the return of displaced people in the Rukban refugee camp to their hometowns.

PressTV-'US military presence in Syria source of instability’

The Russian foreign minister says the “illegitimate” presence of US military forces on Syrian soil contributes to instability in the crisis-hit Arab country.

On January 12, a Syrian mother attempted to torch herself and her children to death in the camp after she failed to find food for her family for three straight days.

Read more:

• Starving Syrian mum sets self, kids on fire in refugee camp near Jordan

In October, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said people in Rukban had been without access to food and humanitarian aid for several months, highlighting that the tough situation was further complicated with a closed border by Jordan.

PressTV-‘US-backed militants steal majority of aid for Syria camp’

A report says US-sponsored militants have plundered most of the humanitarian aid destined for displaced Syrian in the Rukban refugee camp.

The area where Rukban is located is controlled by the former US-backed Shuhada al-Qaryatayn militant group. The extremists were supposed to evacuate to northern Syria in accordance with a Russian-backed deal, but refused to do so.

UN: 200 families under Daesh siege in eastern Syria

Meanwhile, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has warned that some 200 families are trapped in a shrinking area in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, which is controlled by Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

Many of the families in the village of Baghouz “continue to be subjected to intensified air and ground-based strikes by the US-led coalition forces and their [Syrian Democratic Forces] SDF allies on the ground,” Bachelet said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We understand that ISIL [Daesh] appears to be preventing some of them if not all of them from leaving. So that's potentially a war crime on the part of ISIL [Daesh],” her spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing.

Bachelet also voiced concern for some 20,000 people, who have fled Daesh-held areas in Dayr al-Zawr province over the past few weeks.

They are being held in makeshift camps run by the Kurdish armed groups, including the SDF, who are reported to be preventing the internally-displaced people from leaving the camps, she said.

“Particular care needs to be taken with the civilians and if possible they should be treated humanely, and allowed to leave the camps. They shouldn’t be held in detention unless they are suspected of committing a particular crime,” Colville said.

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