A fresh shipment of aid supplies has reached Madaya, the Syrian town that until recently had been under siege.
The shipment of six trucks, organised jointly by the International Committee for the Red Cross, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the United Nations, includes wheat flour, medicine, nutritional material, blankets, hygiene supplies and clothing, said Pawel Krzysiek , the ICRC’s spokesman in Syria.
Marianne Gasser , the head of the ICRC delegation in Syria, told the Guardian: “I talked to a man whom we met two days ago in really bad condition. When he heard that flour will come to Madaya he started crying. Children have started smiling and are more lively.”
Madaya was besieged for five months by forces loyal to the Syrian government. A new shipment containing three trucks’ worth of aid simultaneously entered the villages of Fua and Kefraya in northern Syria, which have been besieged by rebels fighting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian government allowed aid into Madaya after images of emaciated children and accounts of residents reduced to scouring minefields for grass to eat and surviving on cooked tree leaves and spiced water sparked worldwide condemnation.
The ICRC appealed for a simultaneous and immediate end to all sieges across Syria. Roughly 400,000 Syrians are living in besieged areas, where they lack access to basic supplies including food and medicine.
“The scenes we witnessed in Madaya were truly heartbreaking,” said Gasser. “People are desperate. Food is in extremely short supply. It is the elderly, women and children who are suffering the most, especially from severe malnourishment. The conditions are some of the worst that I have witnessed in my five years in the country. This cannot go on.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 senior community figures in besieged areas of Syria have signed an open letter accusing the United Nations of complicity in the plight of starving Syrians .
The letter, addressed to Stephen O’Brien, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, states: “Mr O’Brien, as head of the UN body negotiating, coordinating and deciding access to these areas, you have the power to deliver lifesaving food and medicine to those children who are starving to death.
“The UN security council has given you authorisation and the world has paid for the aid. It is time to have the courage of your convictions and break the siege.”
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