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Reports: Turkey and Russia consider evacuations from besieged Syrian area
(CNN)As the Syrian government maintains its stranglehold on a besieged Damascus suburb, allies in Russia and adversaries in Turkey are considering plans to evacuate hundreds of civilians caught in a growing humanitarian crisis.
Moscow
and Ankara are discussing the relocation of hundreds of people from
Eastern Ghouta, Turkey's President said, according to Russian and
Turkish news reports.
Syria also is considering the evacuation of seven child cancer patients from the area.
The
beleaguered suburban enclave of 400,000 near the Syrian capital is at a
"critical point," says the International Committee of the Red Cross,
with reports of malnourished children and sick and injured people being trapped.
An infant suffering from severe malnutrition in Eastern Ghouta.
Various
rebel groups control Eastern Ghouta, and the suburb has been surrounded
by Syrian regime forces for more than four years. Eastern Ghouta is
part of four de-escalation zones negotiated by the Russian, Iranian and
Turkish governments in May.
In theory, residents in the area should be in a safe zone free from airstrikes, shelling and fighting. But they have suffered from both a lengthy siege and continued bombardment.
This has come amid a climate of peace talks and a victory declaration from Moscow in which Russian President Vladimir Putin said his military forces would begin to withdraw.
Ahead
of a trip to Sudan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news
conference in Ankara on Sunday that about 500 people, including 170
women and children, require "urgent humanitarian aid," according to Turkey's TRT and Russia's Sputnik news agencies.
Erdogan
said the Turkish and Russian chiefs of staff will work together to
carry out the evacuation, TRT reported. The move would involve the
Turkish Red Crescent and Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Organization.
"We
are discussing with [Putin] how to evacuate them to our country without
problems and provide them with medical assistance," Sputnik quoted
Erdogan as saying.
In Syria, President Bashar
al-Assad is considering a request to evacuate seven child cancer
patients from Eastern Ghouta, the founder of the UK charity Doctors
Under Fire told CNN Sunday.
Hamish
de Bretton-Gordon said he directly contacted Assad's office on
Saturday, hoping to repeat his success in evacuating 500 children from
Aleppo last year, when it was held by the rebels and besieged by Syrian
and Russian forces.
At that time, he said, he appealed directly to the Syrian and Russian Presidents.
"When
I heard about the seven [children] with cancer, we decided to try the
same approach. Apparently al-Assad knows all about the children, and his
office told us to call him back on Tuesday morning," he told CNN.
Doctors Under Fire operates under the banner of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations.
De
Bretton-Gordon said he is working with UN officials to facilitate
access to Eastern Ghouta if he gets the OK on Tuesday, with Wednesday
being the earliest the children could be evacuated.
UNICEF says 137 children "require immediate medical evacuation."
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