The United Nations' children agency says two children have died in a desert camp for displaced people along the Syria-Jordan border.
UNICEF says the children died in the past 48 hours due to lack of medical care. The agency says a 5-day-old boy and a 4-month-old girl died in the squalid Rukban camp, which houses over 40,000 people, AP reported.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that Syrian government forces have cut off roads used for aid deliveries to Rukban, exacerbating the camp's poor conditions.
The activist group says the blockade came after the failure of a rebel group to evacuate the camp according to deal reached earlier.
UNICEF says it has a clinic in Jordan near the border but that more sophisticated health care services are needed.
The Humanitarian Response Coordinators team, in statement issued Wednesday, said 14 civilians, including children, have died in Rukban camp in two weeks due to poor living conditions and lack of medical care.
The relief group has called on all parties to pressure on the Syrian regime and Russia to lift the siege.
The UNICEF medical point, Jordanian authorities and the Syrian regime have refused to give an access for sick people, especially children, said Yazan Mahmoud, member of the administrative staff at Cham Medical Centre.
Infant Munaf al-Hammoud, 14-month-old, and baby girl Huda Raslan lost their lives on Monday due to lack of medical equipment and staff.
The humanitarian crisis inside the camp has sparked concerns and fears of the about 75,000 people based in the Rukban camp.
UNICEF, which is the only official and working medical point in the camp, has been closed for about two weeks, causing the death of four poeple due to the inability of emergency staff to treat them, according to Mahmoud.
The Rukban camp, that lies along the demilitarized berm between Jordan and Syria, is a completely arid remote area inhabited by 75,000 Syrian refugees since 2014.
The most current and growing concern among the medical staff working in the Rukban is the diseases affecting children, not to mention the dozens of cesarean sections that require doctors, medical supplies and medicines that are not available in any of the medical centers located in Rukban camp.
The Cham Medical Center offers some types of treatment for displaced families in Rukban camp, relying on the few medical facilities already in its possession. But the Center suffers from a severe shortage of equipment and medicines that are necessary to treat many of the diseases affecting the children of the camp.
Zaman Al Wasl
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