Doctors in Syria beg David Cameron for RAF aid drops to help starving civilians

A medical organisation has asked for much-needed supplies to help people hemmed in by fighting

Hundreds of thousands remain trapped by fighting in Syria that is destroying their homes (Getty Images)

Doctors in Syria have begged the UK government to allow the RAF to drop food for starving people cut off from aid by the raging civil war.

In an open letter to David Cameron, doctors from the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) also said medical supplies were urgently needed.

The organisation, made up of Syrian doctors living outside of the country who support those working near conflict areas, estimates that only 36 out of the 5,000 doctors who used to work in Aleppo are still there, while 80 per cent of hospitals in conflict areas have been destroyed by five years of fighting.

In the letter, which supports an on-going campaign by UK MPs to help aid reach Syrian civilians, the doctors suggested air drops would be the best way to stop people dying from starvation, given that aid is not reaching people on the ground, despite aid trucks theoretically being permitted into conflict areas.

Syrian doctor Ghanem al-Tayara, who runs medical aid charity Syria Relief, told the Telegraph: “The rate of death from chronic disease and lack of treatment is equal to the deaths from bombardment and shooting and everything else.

“Something has to be done whether it's air drops or opening corridors. It's not acceptable in 2016 for people to die just because of a lack of simple medicines. People have died just because of a lack of antibiotics.”

Many Syrian civilians have fled the country, or been uprooted from their homes in conflict areas, but others have been trapped by the fighting, with more than 100,000 believed to be people stuck in the Azaz district of Aleppo alone.

The doctors from UOSSM identified 18 areas where people were largely hemmed in by Assad’s forces, with just one air drop from the UN having taken place, to civilians trapped in an Isis stronghold, with no news as to whether further air drops are planned.