HOSPITALS IN SYRIA ARE “ABSOLUTELY OVERLOADED,” SAYS UNICEF REPRESENTATIVE IN ALEPPO

Tue 07 February 2023:

Hospitals in earthquake-hit Syria are “absolutely overloaded,” UNICEF representative in Aleppo, Angela Kearney, told CNN’s Christina Macfarlane on Tuesday.

Kearney said hospitals are full of patients with trauma, broken bones and lacerations, and that some people are also going to the hospital to seek help for the mental trauma they endured when the quake struck.

While hospitals are functioning, the task has been overwhelming, Kearney said.

Describing the scene in Aleppo when the earthquake struck on Monday, Kearney said children who have already been traumatized by war were “bewildered. didn’t know what was happening.”

Kearney said that on Monday morning when UNICEF began its work in the area, there were seven schools in Aleppo city that were being used as shelters. By Tuesday morning, that grew to 67 schools, and currently, it is nearly 200.

“In all of those schools that are partially damaged, there are families there who left their apartments, left their houses with just their pajamas,” Kearny said adding that while aid is starting to go into the affected areas, there is still a need for blankets, food, clean water, medical care and nutritional care.

Kearny said water, sanitation and nutrition needs are the most urgent. “The aid is starting to go in but it is overwhelming; the needs are very great,” she said.

Kearney said that the Syrian government is also in Aleppo with authorities giving aid but that the needs are very great.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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