Most Syrian cities and towns currently lie in ruins due to the ongoing “civil war,” which started in 2011. Urban infrastructure is also destroyed. Thousands of civilians fled from their houses, but those who returned suffered heavily from the indiscriminate airstrikes of the U.S.-led international coalition. Nowadays Raqqa is one of the most ruined cities in Syria.
At the same time, numerous Western states continue to voice concern regarding the horrifying humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta. But first, the U.S. coalition should have remembered how it didn’t provide the civilians with corridors for evacuation, security and humanitarian aid as well as turned Raqqa into ruins. According to the UN, 80 percent of the city is now uninhabitable. Some 270,000 had to flee from Raqqa.
Currently, the humanitarian situation in Raqqa remains dire. This is witnessed in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) report, published on March 14, 2018. According to the report, more than 95,000 people returned to the city since it was liberated. However, the severe insecurity of the present situation in residential areas has already caused the death of 130 civilians while 658 have been injured. Statistically, every week from 20 to 25 planted mines detonate in Raqqa.
Moreover, the residents of the city face the lack of water supplies. They have to drink water, yet the quality raises serious doubts for international organizations.
It is particularly outrageous that the West continues to ignore the distressful situation of Raqqa citizens and try in every way to conceal the current situation in the province. Instead of humanitarian aid supplies, the Western media presented the liberation of Raqqa from ISIS in October 2017 as a key military victory of the U.S.-led international coalition.
The humanitarian situation in the neighboring province of Deir Ezzor is also far from ideal. Despite water supplies provided by Russia and the restoration of two water plants, the locals continue suffering from flagitious actions of the coalition. It is worth noting that more than 70 civilians have been killed as a result of the air strikes carried out by the U.S. and its partners over residential areas and refugees camps since February 2018.
Taken as a whole, the situation in northeastern Syria remains tense and unstable. The population of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor suffer from food, medicine, and water shortage. The humanitarian supplies are delivered sporadically due to the ongoing clashes between the Kurdish militia and ISIS.
However, things are improving in the city of Deir Ezzor thanks to actions of the Syrian Army as well as the Russian Center for Reconciliation of opposing sides’ humanitarian deliveries. In addition, the government forces continue to ensure security in the province because of ISIS actions and a lack of cooperation by the coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces in fighting them.
Obviously, the Pentagon has been unable to achieve a victory over terrorism in the region despite all its statements, and that is because it was never truly their goal to begin with. The U.S.-led international coalition has also taken no steps to lend humanitarian support to the victims aggravating the crisis in the country. It seems that the U.S. administration deliberately turned a blind eye to the sufferings of Syrians and also its grave mistakes in “fighting terrorists.”