UN Panel Urges Halt to Syria Fighting as Virus Strikes. And the Turkish occupation threatens the safe areas

Warring parties in Syria must stop fighting “to avoid further catastrophe”, UN investigators said on Saturday, as the first cases of the COVID-19 epidemic are recorded in a country already torn apart by nine years of war.

The UN fears large numbers of preventable deaths may follow although Damascus has reported only five cases of the novel coronavirus so far.

“Syrian civilians now face a deadly threat in the form of the COVID-19 outbreak, one that will strike without distinction and that will be devastating for the most vulnerable in the absence of urgent preventative action,” said Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

The parties must heed calls for a ceasefire or face a “looming tragedy”, Pinheiro said, adding: “Anything short of that will likely condemn large numbers of civilians to preventable deaths.”

The conflict has left more than 380,00 dead and the World Health Organization says Syria’s health system has been acutely weakened.

Just 64 percent of hospitals and 52 percent of primary healthcare centers that existed before 2011 are functioning, and 70 percent of the country’s health workers have left.

The commission noted that “much of this situation is a result of pro-Government forces systematically targeting medical facilities”.

“Nurses, doctors and medical volunteers have been attacked, detained and disappeared by parties to the conflict,” the statement said, according to AFP.

“All attacks on medical providers, facilities, hospitals, and first responders must cease immediately.”

The camps offer limited access to water in a region where dozens of hospitals have closed because of the fighting.

Meanwhile, while the Northeast Administration is working to take all available measures and means to preserve the lives of citizens, the Turkish army and terrorist groups are bombing safe areas.

Sida village in Ain Issa countryside is being exposed to the bombardment of the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries.

Our correspondents from the region stated that the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries are bombing meanwhile Sida village in Ain Issa countryside in Girê Spî canton by launching it with shells and rockets.

The administration called on the international parties to the need to deter Turkey from its actions and practices against the north of the country and the need for Turkey to get out of the Kurdish cities it occupied