Om Abdo is a woman from Aleppo. She fled along with her three sons and two daughters from the unceasing bombardment of the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo.
Om Abdo and her family walked for approximately seven hours straight, while shells fell all around them. Once they arrived at the first neighborhood in government-controlled western Aleppo, the Syrian government forces arrested her brother and her husband. Until this moment, their whereabouts remain a mystery. Om Abdo’s story is one of thousands of stories that are told by the people fleeing from the hell of excessive bombardment against Eastern Aleppo neighborhoods. These areas are under a full-scale attack against people and homes. This attack is an attempt to eliminate all forms of life by bombing hospitals and health centres, water pumps, infrastructure, bakeries and many other facilities. Centre for Civil Society and Democracy (CCSD) has monitored the situation of civilians fleeing from shelling and violations against them in the eastern neighborhoods. CCSD has observed cases of locals who have been exterminated, such as those who could not leave for the areas controlled the Syrian government and its allied militias. Activists have reported many cases where young men were tortured in the streets. Regarding displacement from the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo towards the government controlled areas: detention of all young men fleeing from eastern Aleppo has been reported. Young men between the ages of 18 and 42 are being gathered in collective detention centres. There, young men are kept standing without water or food or any regard for human rights for more than two days. Then they are informed about their destination, which is obligatory military service or to an intelligence branch for investigation. Centre for Civil Society and Democracy considers what is happening to civilians in Eastern Aleppo as a flagrant violation of human rights. In addition, the fact that the international community is not moving towards protecting civilians who are under shelling and civilians fleeing from shelling is a crime against Syrian civilians. Upon the aforementioned, CCSD recommends: -Pressuring the Syrian government and its allies to commit to human rights conventions such as the International Humanitarian Law of War and Armed Conflicts. -Making further efforts to pressure the government and its allies for the entrance of human rights organizations and neutral media to monitor civilians leaving the city. -Considering all civilians as neutral. -Providing safe passages for the rest of the civilians and taking them to the areas they wish to go to. Finally, we urge the international community to intervene and take moral responsibility for the Syrian people in Aleppo, in the face of the violations committed by Syrian government forces along with their Russian and Iranian allies for the sole purpose of fighting ‘terrorism’. These violations have caused many causalities, over 70% of whom are civilians, and most of whom are children, women and the elderly. Again, we demand to separate humanitarian issues from political issues, and find actual and serious mechanisms to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 to stop the agony of the Syrian people.
CCSD 13/12/2016
