More than a quarter-million Syrians trapped in eastern Aleppo are at risk of dying over the next 20 days due to relentless aerial bombings by the Assad regime and Russian allies that have left the city with a dwindling food supply and sparse access to medical care.
In an op-ed published Thursday morning, the head of the Syrian Civil Defense group and other relief workers, including the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, pleaded with the international community to pressure the Syrian government to allow the immediate entry of food and medical supplies into besieged areas.
The activists warned it could take less than three weeks before the complete loss of medical supplies and mass starvation threaten to kill the 250,000 Syrians remaining in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, including 100,000 children.
"Every day, [these children] experience unparalleled levels of trauma and anxiety, making them an especially vulnerable group with only 29 doctors remaining to care for them and their families," the activists wrote. "Our doctors are faced with the unimaginable task of having to decide which child to save and which to let die due to the severe shortage of medical supplies and staff."
The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said even survivors who receive medical care are left with severe trauma symptoms because the infrastructure needed to provide mental health care is void.
"We let them leave our hospitals in anguish and despair, knowing we helped rescue them from underneath the rubble and provided medical care for them in our hospitals but also knowing we cannot alleviate their fear," they wrote. "We are all afraid. We work knowing that the next child we help may be our own."
Just hours after the plea for help was published in the Washington Post, the group confirmed that at least 21 more people in eastern Aleppo had been killed by airstrikes as barrel bombs continued to pound the region.
The Syrian civil war, now into its sixth year, has killed an estimated 400,000 people while displacing millions of Syrian refugees.
About 13.5 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance while 4.8 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq; 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria; and about one million have requested asylum to Europe, according to official figures.