The Chaldean bishop Antoine Audo speaks of starvation in Aleppo

Bishop
Antoine Audo SJ

As fighting continues, the humanitarian situation
in Aleppo is becoming more and more desperate. The Chaldean bishop of Aleppo,
Antoine Audo SJ, President of Caritas Syria said in a statement to Fides: "One
lives day by day. I have the impression that people are more and more exhausted.
They have all become poor and everyone is always looking for something to eat
for himself and his family. In the streets of Aleppo you can see the people that
run endlessly with bags in their hand, trying to find a bit of bread ...
".
Aleppo was once one of the most prosperous and
dynamic cities in the Middle East, but now appears hopelessly scarred by the
civil war. The latest emergency that closely involves the Churches in Aleppo is
that of hundreds of Christian families forced to flee from the neighbourhood of
Cheikh Maksoud, conquered in the last days by the anti-Assad militias.
On Thursday afternoon," said Mgr Audo "there will
be a Mass for displaced Christians from Cheikh Maksoud, with the priests and
bishops who will be able to come. After there will be a distribution of aid for
refugees organized by Caritas Syria."
The Chaldean Bishop said most roads have become
off limits. He said: "Yesterday I went to the hospital to visit a person, and I
spent several hours to get back home because many roads were closed to traffic.
I also learned that many doctors were threatened and forced to flee."
The fate of Armenian Catholic priest Fr Michel
Kayyal and Fr Maher Mahfouz a Greek Orthodox priest, kidnapped two months ago by
a group of armed people on the road from Aleppo to Damascus remains
unknown.
Mgr Audo said: "The anarchy of the war allows you
to perceive in even stronger terms the greatness of human dignity, just when it
seems so humiliated. In all this, many seek God and ask Him for peace of heart,
in prayer."