nydailynews.com, Christopher Brennan, 11/30/2016
The ‘Aleppo clown’ who tried to bring joy to children in the war-torn Syrian city has been killed in an airstrike.
Anas al-Basha is a 24-year-old director of Places d’Espoir, Space for Hope, an organization that supports schools and children’s centers in eastern Aleppo. He visits children to bring them joy in the midst of a terrible war. He visited 12 schools, four psychosocial support centres. It takes care of 365 children who have lost their parents, their father or both.
Last summer, her parents left Aleppo before government forces took control of the city. Anas al Basha chose to stay behind to look after the babies. He has only been married for two months, his wife is still alive and does not want to leave Aleppo.
Aleppo, a rebel stronghold regularly bombed by the Syrian government and the Russian air force, Anas was killed in a missile attack on Tuesday.
Samar Hijazi, the comedian’s supervisor, said when she thinks of him, she thinks of someone who enjoys working with children, especially those who have lost either a father or a mother or both during the of the last five years of war.
The Syrian mother shared moving tweets amid the bombardment of the city of Aleppo. A message on the Syrian Children’s Facebook page read: “At him, the besieged children of Aleppo laugh. They nicknamed him “the last comedian of Aleppo”.
Image: Al-Basha is the director of Places for Hope, an organization that supports schools in Syria.
After five months of massive attacks, hope for this town located near the border between Syria and Turkey has vanished.
Doctors Without Borders said all hospitals in Aleppo were closed and were all damaged by the airstrikes.
The organization said the babies were born at local health centers but were not fed as well as milled rice because the mothers were starving and could not get enough milk. .
The Syrian army advanced to capture the city of Aleppo, causing the departure of thousands of people. Russian authorities say they have sent a makeshift hospital to the town, but UN humanitarian director Stephen O’Brien said the participants “showed their willingness to use any measure to secure their military advantage”.
Image: A member of the Civil Protection walks through a market hit by an airstrike in the al-Fardous neighborhood, a rebel-held area of Aleppo.
“There are no boundaries or red lines to cross. The rules of war – the sacrosanct concept born of generations of painful and costly lessons of war laid down and recognized by the Geneva Conventions more than 150 years ago – have been systematically ignored,” said Stephen O’Brien.
Italian diplomat Staffan de Mistura told the Security Council on Syria that government forces have taken over about 40% of land that was once considered opposition territory.