Washington, DC. (April 10, 2018) — The American Relief Coalition for Syria (ARCS) condemns Saturday’s chemical attack in Douma, Syria, that killed at least 42 people. The victims’ symptoms, according to ARCS member Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), indicated that they suffocated from exposure to toxic chemicals. Over 500 people, most of them women and children, were rushed to nearby medical facilities also with symptoms indicative of chemical gas exposure.

Syrian civil society and humanitarian organizations in the besieged city of Douma, near Damascus, reported that chemical weapons were used in Saturday’s airstrikes. While the use of poisonous gas is an international war crime, multiple chemical attacks have occured in Syria since the onset of the conflict, including one in 2013 that killed over 1,400 people.

As humanitarian organizations who work on the ground, ARCS members call upon the international community to ensure the perpetrators of this attack are held accountable.

ARCS is a coalition of secular, non-political, Syrian diaspora led humanitarian organizations that provide multi-sector relief inside of Syria, as well as assistance and services to Syrian refugees in regional host countries and in the United States. Together the efforts of ARCS organizations help millions of Syrians, both those who remain in Syria and those displaced as refugees. To learn more about ARCS, visit ARCSyria.org.