[…] Earlier this month Carmelite nuns in Aleppo wrote to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need to denounce skewed reporting in the international media, citing only the most recent examples of unreported tragedies in the western part of Aleppo that is under fire, not from the Syrian government, but from rebel-held East Aleppo:

“As you already know from the reports that have reached the West, the air strikes on Aleppo are frequent. But the situation in West Aleppo is no better, even though the media won’t report it. This bias in the news is very painful to us, because of the things we witness each and every day, directly or indirectly, through the information we get from priests or from trustworthy people close by, of the plight of many of the neighborhoods in the West of the city, where more and more people are being killed by grenades, by missiles, and by ever-more sophisticated weapons, or are succumbing to the total lack of water and electricity, which have been cut off by the enemy; the West too counts dozens of dead and injured, daily. […]”

Bishop Antoine Audo, SJ, head of Caritas Syria and Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, corroborated the Carmelites’ words in an interview with Vatican Radio: “The testimony of the Carmelite nuns is reliable,” said the bishop. “To us it’s important to let people know that in the Western part of Aleppo, where there are two million inhabitants, many Christians have left because of the bombs that are being dropped everywhere and every day, with no one saying a thing. For example, yesterday morning they bombed a school in the Christian quarter, killing four or five children, and injuring some 50 people. A school!”

“I think,” Bishop Audo added, “that those who control the information in the West have a political agenda. We must, as Christians, as honest people, ask who is behind this manipulation, this exploitation of the media. And I think that if the war goes on like this not only will there will be soon be no one left in Aleppo. Whoever can, leaves. Only those who can’t leave are staying on, which means the poor and the elderly. Little by little it will be the end of this wonderful Christian community of Aleppo. This is our drama and our pain. We try to do everything we can. We say: ‘Peace! Peace! Peace!’ but on the side of the rebels there is no peace but ‘War! War! War!’ which will they continue all the way to destruction.” […]