‘Today it was a taste of hell as portrayed in the Bible. Fires everywhere. Explosions. Mothers missing their children. Families shattered. No one is asking for food or support, but [instead] where they can hide themselves and their children.’
These grief-stricken words were written to Barnabas Fund by its representative, who is a senior doctor and leader in the Baptist community in Aleppo. An intense bombardment of mortars, gas cylinders and missiles had rained on residential areas throughout the divided city.
By 30 April, 1,350 rockets had hit the government area of the city alone, populated mostly by Christians, killing 132 people, half of them women and children. Around 600 people were injured. More civilians were killed and injured in the rebel-held areas of the city. On 29 April, rebels fired a rocket into one of the few remaining hospitals in the area which is providing free medical care.
A few days of lighter bombardment followed, before intensifying again on 3 May, resulting in a further 65 deaths and hundreds more injured in the government-held areas. Each hour more than 20–30 rockets and mortars were hitting the city. ‘Aleppo today was burning, exploding, destroyed’, the contact wrote. ‘No secured place. No safe haven.’ Children have been left alone, not knowing where their parents are. Of the 65 killed on 3 May, an estimated 35 died when Dabbit Hospital, which treated only women and children, was destroyed by a rocket explosion. Two died on the operating table. Another hospital in the government area was partly damaged and has now been closed down.
Call for balanced reporting
There is growing frustration on the ground in Aleppo over the imbalanced reporting of the bombardment. The Western media tends to emphasise events in the eastern side of the city, which is currently held by the rebels and holds a population of around 300,000 people. In doing so, events in the government-held western side of Aleppo, where 1.5 million reside (75% of the city’s population), are largely being ignored.
Another Christian doctor said: ‘Since the beginning of the war in Aleppo four years ago, they [the mainstream media] have consistently failed to report all the facts. All of us here in Aleppo are disgusted by their lack of impartiality and objectivity’.
He added: ‘They only ever talk about the loss of life in the east of Aleppo, which is entirely controlled by Al Nusra, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda. They remain silent on the daily losses and suffering endured in the western areas of Aleppo, living under the rain of mortar fire from these terrorist factions – and never mention the terrorist blockade upon our people or the electricity cuts and water shortages inflicted upon us’.
Occupied by rebels
This need for a balanced approach is reflected in the new details emerging regarding the destruction of a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) paediatric hospital in rebel-held Aleppo on 27 April by a government air strike. Contrary to the picture presented by many Western media outlets, the hospital had been occupied by the rebels since late 2012 and transformed into an armed base for them, as they have done with all hospitals and schools in the rebel-held area. The hospital accommodated internally displaced persons who served as a human shield for the rebels. It was also used to store weapons and as a shari’a court.
Prior to the attack, the Syrian government dropped flyers warning people to leave the hospital. Dr Muhammad Waseem Moaz, the paediatric doctor killed by the air strike, as reported by the international media, was working for the rebels and refused to let people out of the hospital. In the subsequent attack, more than 50 people and at least six medical staff were killed.
It must be stressed that government forces and their allied groups are by no means blameless in this ongoing conflict. But what must be cautioned against is focusing on one side to the detriment of the other, because in doing so the danger is that the plight of individuals and whole communities can be overlooked and so deprived of the care and assistance that they deserve.
Will you help?
Barnabas Fund is able to bring a more complete perspective because it is providing help to Christians in the city through its contacts, respected leaders in the community who are themselves living and working with the ever-present danger, and who have chosen to stay and help their brothers and sisters.
Above all, join with Aleppo’s Christians in prayer for their city. ‘Be a safe place for those on the run from the killing fields’ (Isaiah 16.4).
