A Syria monitoring group and a rescue worker say an intense bombing campaign has targeted several neighborhoods in the rebel-held part of Aleppo city, including centers of the award-winning volunteer civil defense group known as the White Helmets.
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A volunteer group in Syria that has rescued thousands of people from buildings bombed in the civil war were among the winners of the Right Livelihood Award, the prize-giving foundation said on Thursday.
Swedish-German philatelist Jakob von Uexkull founded the donor-funded prize in 1980 after the Nobel Foundation behind the Nobel Prizes refused to create awards honouring efforts in the fields of the environment and global development.
The laureates will share the 3.0-million-kronor (315,000-euro, $350,000) prize.
The al-Ansari civil defence center is said to be one of the three that were targeted.
Von Uexkull said they were nominated for the prize for their “outstanding bravery, compassion and humanitarian engagement in rescuing civilians”.
Government sympathizers accuse the group of aiding “terrorists”, a catch-all term the government uses to describe its armed opponents. Egyptian feminist activist Mozn Hassan and her organization Nazra for Feminist Studies, won the award for their efforts in promoting gender equality and women’s rights.
Turkish newspaper “Cumhuriyet” shared the award for fighting for freedom of the press in Turkey.
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The paper’s former editor-in-chief, Can Dundar, and its Ankara representative, Erdem Gul, were sentenced to five years in prison in May for their reports on alleged Turkish arms smuggling to Syrian rebels.
