Because of the siege, there is no means of heating other than blankets

The winter season has become a nightmare for the people of the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods. Because it comes with an almost complete absence of heating material (diesel oil), as a result of the siege imposed by the Damascus government on the region and does not allow the material to enter the region, which prompts the people to search for alternative means of diesel fuel, as the majority rely on buying scraps (remnants of fabrics from Laboratories), and some of them are satisfied with the covers because they cannot even buy these scraps.

Heating material is absent and impossible to purchase

One of the citizens who was satisfied with blankets as a source of heating in her home told our agency the anxiety she endured as a result of the siege. She said: “Heating material is also absent this winter in our house as a result of the government siege, and with its price rising it will become impossible to buy, so another winter without heating material.”

Citizen Avista Hamo (32 years old), the mother of three children, the eldest of whom is 13 years old and the youngest of 9 years old, points out that she was not one of the lucky women who received their allocations of heating material distributed to the people by the fuel committee provided by the general council of the neighborhood in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh.

The institutions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria provided heating fuel in neighborhoods of Aleppo, estimated at 100 liters per family, but the siege had a different opinion, as the distribution included a small segment estimated at only 20% of the people, and deprived the remaining percentage of their allocations.

The siege is getting tougher

Avista noted that the quantity was very small and said: “We are in the winter season, and this winter is very harsh. The distribution included a very small segment of the population, and then the Damascus government blocked the way for diesel tanks.”

Regarding the reasons for not relying on scraps as an alternative to diesel fuel like other families, Avista said: “Some families depend on scraps to provide some heating for their home, but I do not even have the ability to buy scraps due to the already difficult living situation.”

Avista expressed its fears about the repercussions of the siege if it continues, saying: “Today without heating supplies, tomorrow we will remain without bread, a hospital, and electricity (the weekly subscription), which only lasts for three hours due to the lack of fuel allocated to operate the generators.”

Suffocate the people!

Avista found that the policy pursued by the Damascus government deliberately stifles the people and said: “When the government does not allow the people’s allowances for heating, it deliberately stifles them, because these are the needs of the people and have no relation to other issues. The government is hostile to the people.”

Avista continued: “What is the fault of the children to prevent them from heating materials in this harsh winter, when we are still in the beginning of winter, and we know that the weather will become frosty in the coming days? They must not mix the humanitarian issue with other topics.”

Avista asked the human rights organization to visit the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods to see what is happening in the two neighborhoods and said: “Don’t we have the right to receive our allocations of heating materials and other necessities of life? Today our children are getting sick due to the lack of heating materials in the home, and when we go to the hospital to treat them, we do not find medicines.” And if the medicine is available, we cannot buy it due to its high price. Wherever you turn, the siege stings you.”

Avista appealed to human rights organizations and the whole world and said: “In order to feel our situation and act on this basis, it must pressure the Damascus government to abandon the policy of strangling the people.”

“The covers are a means of heating in our house.”

As for government electricity, at its best, it only comes on for three hours a day. Avista explained in this regard that it cannot rely on it to operate the heater because it comes on late at night when everyone is asleep.

Regarding the means of heating that Avista relies on in her home, she says: “The blankets are our only way;

The neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh, and al-Shahba District are subjected to a stifling siege, which last year caused the death of two children, Wissam Sido (4 years old) and Hussein Kibar (17 days old), as a result of the loss of heating facilities.

T/Satt.

ANHA