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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Politics
Al Jazeera

What hope is there for Syria's besieged?

What hope is there for Syria's besieged?

For nearly four years, Syrians in the town of Daraya have lived under siege, with limited access to food and medicine, at the hands of their government.

On Friday, they received their first food-aid delivery since 2012. But then came the barrel bombs, dropped by Syrian government helicopters.

Residents say the bombardment prevented the food aid from getting to people who needed it.

Friday's aid delivery came after weeks of negotiations and international pressure on the government - and Daraya is just one of several Syrian towns currently under siege.

The UN estimates that more than 500,000 Syrians are affected, but some groups like the Siege Watch Project put that figure at more than one million.

With the government agreeing to let aid into more besieged areas, is a new chapter being opened in aid delivery? And how are sieges being used by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in this conflict?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

Neil Sammonds - Syria Researcher at Amnesty International

Abeer Etefa - senior spokeswoman for the Middle East at the World Food Programme

Marwan Kabalan - Syrian academic and writer

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