|
GENEVA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- A UN rights expert on Friday warned that medical units were being viewed by many in Syria as areas of great danger with civilians choosing not to go near them due to fear for their safety.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Puras on Friday condemned the direct targeting and continued damage and destruction of medical units in the ongoing war in Syria.
According to the expert, from the beginning of May 2016, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented incidents involving at least eight medical units in Syria at which dozens of civilians were killed and injured.
He added that just this week, on June 8, several attacks on medical units took place in the city of Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians.
"The sheer number of such facilities being hit, as well as information relating to some of the incidents, suggests that some hospitals and other medical facilities may have been directly targeted," he noted.
The latest UN figures show that at least 400,000 people have been killed and more than half of Syria's population has fled their homes since the political crisis and subsequent armed conflict broke out there in March 2011.
