After the opposition fighters in Syria at the beginning of June lost their stronghold in the city of Al Qusayr, many in Aleppo fear that this biggest city of Syria will be the next battlefield.
‘Aleppo is under siege by gangs and fanatic rebels’, an Open Doors USA contact said. Churches partnering with Open Doors continue to help the neediest people in the city, but face challenges in supplying the internally displaced people and the needy families of their congregations with food. Open Doors contact Samuel says: ‘[Christians] are not in a good mood. We pray for a solution, but it seems it is going to be very bad. People are afraid. Especially now the head of church isn’t here; there is still no news about our kidnapped bishop. People want to leave, but there is no way out. People are afraid of being kidnapped when they think of leaving the city by car or bus’.
The UN says nearly 93,000 people have been killed in the civil war in Syria — and that is just the confirmed death toll. ‘The constant flow of killings continues at shockingly high levels, with more than 5,000 killings documented every month since last July, including a total of just under 27,000 new killings since December 1’, said Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights. But Pillay says the real number of fatalities is probably much higher, as the official toll only spans from March 2011 through April 2013.
