Mariupol is now at the stage of catastrophe, soon people may begin to die of hunger or dehydration.
This was announced by the emergency coordinator of the organization Doctors Without Borders Alex Wade in an interview with reporters.
He added that the humanitarian situation in Mariupol is deteriorating every day.
— We have employees, employees of MSF (Doctors Without Borders), who are now in Mariupol, with whom we manage to maintain contact, although it becomes more and more difficult to maintain this contact every day. They confirmed to us that there has been no access to clean drinking water for more than a week,” said Alex Wade.
He confirmed that the population is using snow and rainwater, and hacking heating systems to gain access to water, but for many, water and food have already run out. Food was left only to those with stocks who were able to set aside stocks.
“I think you could say we are in a catastrophic phase right now,” Alex Wade added.
According to him, field workers in Mariupol reported that people were dying due to lack of access to medicines.
“In the next phase, we will see people who could potentially die from dehydration and starvation or … or try to flee the city, trying to find food and water, and then die from a violent death outside the city,” he said.
Alex Wade added that there is now a panic in the city.
“Today we spoke with an employee who told us that people … take the corpses of their neighbors and bury them in their own yards, just so that their neighbors are buried and not left dead on the streets,” he said.
Although the city was supposed to have evacuation corridors on Saturday, the lack of available communications hinders security efforts, a MSF coordinator said.
– When humanitarian corridors or a safe exit from the city are discussed, many people are not informed and do not know about it, because there is no connection in the city. There is no telephone network. No internet, he said.
