Calls for a Cease-fire to Deal with Polio Outbreak. Syria’s government and rebels were urged on Tuesday to respect “vaccination cease-fires” and permit access to hundreds of thousands of children threatened by an outbreak of polio – another sign of the mounting cost of the country’s conflict, the Guardian reports.
Save the Children issued the cease-fire appeal after the World Health Organisation and the Damascus government confirmed an outbreak of the highly contagious disease in eastern Syria, the first for 14 years.
Tests confirmed polio in 10 out of 22 children in Deir al-Zour Province in northeastern Syria who became ill this month, the New York Times reports, citing a spokesman for the World Health Organization.
“With population movements, it can travel to other areas,” Oliver Rosenbauer said, “so the risk is high of spread across the region.” United Nations officials said last week that they were beginning a campaign to immunize 2.4 million children in Syria against polio and other diseases.
Syrian Official Fired for ‘Unauthorized’ Talks Abroad. AFP reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sacked his vice premier on Tuesday, because he had been absent without leave and conducting unauthorized meetings abroad, according to the Syrian state news agency.
The move follows media reports that Vice Premier Qadri Jamil had met with the U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford on Saturday to discuss proposed Geneva peace talks.
Damascus Rebels Help Civilians Flee Damascus Suburb. A rare moment of coordination between the Syrian government and rebels enabled 1,800 civilians to flee a besieged town on the edge of Damascus on Tuesday, Reuters reports, noting that thousands remain trapped with little food, water or medicine. The BBC’s Lyse Doucet was on the scene, witnessing a “tide of desperate people leaving the area.”
According to Reuters, “this is the third such evacuation from Mouadamiya and the United Nations says 3,000 women and children have already left. The opposition says 12,000 people face starvation and death in the town, which they describe as 90 percent destroyed.”
In another article, a Reuters contributor from Syria describes it as the Starvation Until Submission Tactic, a deliberate effort by the Assad regime to enforce collective punishment on rebel-held areas. Over 1 million Syrians are trapped in areas where aid deliveries have stalled, the United Nations says.
Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team:
The Guardian: U.N. and Health Organizations Call for Cease-fire to Deal With Polio Threat
Bloomberg: The Case Against Negotiating with Assad
New York Times: Syria Fires Official Who Tried to Broker Peace
Daily Beast: Hezbollah Prepares for Syria Showdown in al-Qalamoun
Al Monitor: Iraqi Shiites Join Syria War
Time: How Does the News Get Smuggled Out of Syria
Vice: Meet the Female Kurdish Fighters of Syria
Al Monitor: U.K. Envoy to Syrian Opposition Weighs in on Geneva II