Medical evacuations begin from rebel-held Damascus suburb

(CNN)Evacuations of the first critical medical cases from a rebel-held region east of Damascus have begun, aid agencies say.

The Syrian Red Crescent and International Committee of the Red Cross announced, on their official Twitter accounts Tuesday, that the first patients were to be taken out of the rebel-controlled area of Eastern Ghouta.

Eastern Ghouta is a rebel-held suburb of Damascus and has a population of 400,000. The UN officials warned last month that the area was experiencing the worst outbreak of child malnutrition since the civil war started six years ago, and hundreds of people in need of urgent medical attention are trapped there.

The evacuations began after long negotiations with the Syrian government, according to the Syrian Red Crescent.

Saying that the medical situation in the area, which borders Damascus to the east, has "reached a breaking point," the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) said in a statement that of the 29 patients, four people have been evacuated from the beleaguered suburban enclave.

 

 

 

Thousands besieged in Syria's Eastern Ghouta

The other 25 patients would be moved "over the coming days," the statement said. But SAMS warned that the planned evacuations were a fraction of the critical cases that needed to be moved to areas where they could receive adequate medical attention.

In a tweet, the group urged all parties to "guarantee medical evacuation to the remaining 637 patients" in the suburb.

News Courtesy: www.cnn.com