Hundreds of civilians have managed to leave the al-Rukban refugee camp and arrived at a humanitarian crossing, which was established by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies in the region of Julighm, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on April 7.
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The al-Rukban camp is located within the US-occupied 55km zone around the town of al-Tanaf in southeastern Syria. More than 40,000 civilians are reportedly trapped there with no access to much needed humanitarian aid.
Earlier this year, the SAA and Russian forces established several humanitarian crossings around the 55km zone to evacuate the civilians from the al-Rukban camp. The US-led coalition prevented any evacuation process until the last week, when the first group of civilians managed to leave the camp.
According to a new report of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the Damascus government has evacuated more than 1,700 civilians from the camp so far. The monitoring group revealed that local leaders in the camps are facilitating the evacuation process.
“The factions controlling the camp are not preventing, nor harassing anyone who wants to leave the camp,” the SOHR’s report reads.
The situation in the al-Rukban camp was discussed at a meeting between Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, who arrived in Amman a day earlier.
Despite being an ally of the U.S, Jordan is supportive of the ongoing Syria and Russian efforts to evacuate the camp in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe near own border.
