After five years of hell, a little respite in Syria’s Aleppo

Aleppo: In Syria’s second city Aleppo, rescue workers have been taking advantage of the quiet to play football outside. For the first time in years, they have no one to save.

Their ambulance parked nearby, the volunteers known as White Helmets have been relishing the calm of a landmark truce that took effect on Saturday.

Doctors and emergency workers in war-ravaged Syria typically work around the clock in fraught conditions to provide life-saving care to the wounded.

Since the conflict erupted in 2011, volunteers have been pulling civilians from the rubble after air strikes and treating victims of shelling and sniper fire practically non-stop.

So when the ceasefire came into effect across large parts of Syria, many breathed a sigh of relief.

“There were days we would get 50 calls in each of our 114 emergency call centres across Syria,” said Abdelrahman, a spokesman for the White Helmets.

But after the cessation of hostilities began, he said, the number of pleas for help plummeted: “We got 10 calls the whole day from all of the centres put together.”

The White Helmets posted a picture on Twitter of a shut door with a sticker on it: “Closed because of the truce.”

Volunteers think they may even be able to take an extra day off this week, although many also fear “the calm before the storm”.

“We hope that our centres will be closed every day – but we are still ready,” Abdelrahman said.

Bomb-scarred Aleppo city has suffered some of the country’s most intense clashes.

It has been divided since 2012, with the regime controlling the west and rebels the east.

Dr Hamza Al Khateeb, who runs a hospital in an opposition-held eastern neighbourhood, said he wa s happy finally to be seeing fewer war wounds.

“A relative calm has prevailed and we haven’t received any people wounded from gunfire or shrapnel from shelling over the past two days,” he said.

“But the number of patients with other ailments who are coming to our clinics has risen.”

Patients with diabetes and similar illnesses who were too afraid to make the dangerous journey to the hospital under bombardment are now finally getting treatment, he said.

The hospital itself has also been hit by shellfire.

The medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has strongly criticised Syria’s warring sides for attacks on clinics and hospital staff.

In Damascus, a doctor said he and his team had even begun to think of taking a long-needed holiday.

“We’re still at the ready in case there are any ceasefire violations,” he said. “But it’s no secret that there’s a feeling of mental relief among doctors, especially in the emergency room which has long been a stressful place.”

Emergency workers at the weekend were back to covering “normal” injuries that they “had almost forgotten existed” – car accidents, scrapes and bruises.

“Maybe there’ll even be an opportunity for time off outside the halls of this clinic,” the doctor said.

“Personally, I’m very optimistic. I hope we can go back to the routine we had before the war, witout hearing the wail of ambulances around the clock.”

West of the capital, in the rebel bastion of Daraya, relief that the bombs had stopped was tempered by an ongoing siege.

“After the ceasefire was announced, we were relieved at the hospital because there were no war-wounded,” said Diaa Al Ahmar, a doctor at the district’s only hospital.

Women and children emerged from basements and makeshift bomb shelters for check-ups and other treatment.

But the blockade of the town by pro-government forces means the already strained hospital is unable to care for them properly.

“People are still dying in the city because of the lack of equipment and medicine due to the siege,” Dr Al Ahmar said.

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