DUSHANBE, January 12, 2016, Asia-Plus –
Reuters
reports an aid convoy entered a besieged Syrian town of Madaya on January 11. Thousands have been trapped in the town without supplies for months and people are reported to have died of starvation.
Trucks carrying food and medical supplies reached Madaya near the Lebanese border and began to distribute aid as part of an agreement between warring sides, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Dozens are said to have died in the town from starvation or a lack of medical care and activists say some inhabitants have been reduced to eating leaves. Images said to be of emaciated residents have appeared widely on social media.
At the same time, another convoy began entering two Shi”ite villages, al Foua and Kefraya in the northwestern province of Idlib 300 kilometers away. Rebel fighters in military fatigues and with scarves covering their faces inspected the aid vehicles in the rain before they entered.
Madaya is besieged by pro-Syrian government forces, while the two villages in Idlib province are encircled by rebels fighting the Syrian government.
A Damascus-based U.N. official who entered Madaya and oversaw the entry of the convoy of 44 trucks gave an eyewitness account of the plight of people in the rebel-held town of around 40,000 people.
“We have seen with our own eyes severely malnourished children … so there is starvation, and I am sure the same is true on the other side in Foua and Kefraya,” Yacoub El Hillo, U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, told
Reuters
by phone from Madaya.
The full aid operation was expected to last several days, the ICRC said.
Dr Mohammed Yousef, who heads a local medical team, said 67 people had died either of starvation or lack of medical aid in the last two months, mostly women, children and the elderly.
The United Nations said last Thursday the Syrian government had agreed to allow access to the town. The world body is planning to convene peace talks on January 25 in Geneva in an effort to end nearly five years of civil war that have killed more than a quarter of a million people.
Madaya residents on the outskirts of the town said they wanted to leave. There was widespread hunger and prices of basic foods such as rice had soared, with some people living off water and salt, they said.
The siege began six months ago when the Syrian army and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, started a campaign to reestablish government”s control over areas along the Syrian-Lebanese border.
The last aid delivery to Madaya, which took place in October, was synchronized with a similar delivery to the two other villages.
Aid agencies have warned of widespread starvation in Madaya, where 40,000 people are at risk.
