Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Aleppo (Agenzia Fides) - Ninety disabled people forced to flee the aleppino neighborhood of Cheikh Maksoud - an area conquered in recent weeks by the anti-Assad militias - received hospitality in a hostel owned by the Apostolic Vicariate of Aleppo, but now their condition is put at risk by the lack of water which has become chronic in the metropolis ravaged by the civil war. "The disabled, all Muslims" reports from Aleppo to Fides Agency Fr. David Fernandez, a Catholic missionary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word "had to flee from the house that hosted them, as almost all the inhabitants of the district of Cheikh Maksoud did.
They were looking for a place to find refuge, and the Apostolic Vicariate made available a student residence at the moment uninhabited. But now there is no water, heat increase and those poor disabled find themselves in serious trouble. Many of them are sick."
In addition to disabled refugees in the student residence, other elderly and infirm, under the same conditions, are cared for by the Sisters of Mother Teresa. "In the tragedy of war," comments father Fernandez "gestures of charity appear as a gift even brighter and moving." The missionary confirms to Fides that last week several missiles and mortar shells were fired from the anti-regime militias on the district of Sulaymaniyah, inhabited by many Christians. The goal of the attacks was a government army garrison, but many shots fell on houses. The headquarters of the Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan was also damaged where Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim usually resides, one of the two bishops of Aleppo (the other is the Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos al-Yazigi) in the hands of unknown kidnappers for almost 3 weeks. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 05/11/2013)
