396000 people under siege in Syria have no access to food aid

“Let us not forget that in addition to Madaya, across Syria there are 14 other Madayas and these are locations where different parties to the conflict have been using siege as a tactic of war, depriving children and innocent civilians from accessing life-saving supplies and services”, Boulierac said.

A mobile clinic and medical team of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was on its way to Madaya after the government approved an urgent request, and a vaccination campaign is planned next week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. A teenage boy became the latest victim of hunger, the UN’s child agency Unicef said.

A second aid convoy is on the way to the besieged Syrian city of Madaya, where numerous people are reportedly starving, according to a United Nations source in the convoy.

The letter said the OCHA had “allowed the United Nations to become a political tool of the war” by allowing Syrian government authorities to veto aid to civilians in areas outside their control.

The relief mission is being conducted as part of a U.N.-brokered deal to deliver aid to Madaya, in a mountainous area 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Damascus, and to al-Fouaa and Kefraya – two towns suffering under a rebel blockade in the country’s northwest. “The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the families of the victims and wishes those injured a speedy recovery”, a statement issued by his spokesperson said.

Juliette Touma, an Amman-based UNICEF representative, said the agency’s staff who spent close to seven hours in Madaya on Thursday are “terribly shocked”.

UNICEF has said clinics in Madaya are poorly equipped and medical staff are “emotionally distressed and mentally strained”.

“All sides – including the Syrian government which has the primary responsibility to protect Syrians – are committing this and other atrocious acts prohibited under worldwide humanitarian law”, he told reporters.

Some 400,000 people in Syria were besieged – about half in areas controlled by Islamic State, some 180,000 in areas controlled by the Syrian government and about 12,000 in areas controlled by opposition armed groups, Ban said.

“Combatants have showed complete and utter disregard for Madaya’s people”, Ban added. “A referral to the International Criminal Court requires a vote by the Security Council and it’s certain on an issue like this that Russian Federation and China would use their veto”, Bays added.

Rebel-held Madaya gained worldwide attention as images emerged of emaciated men, women and children, and reports rolled in that at least two dozen people had died from starvation and children were eating grass to survive after the besieged town went months without supplies.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has called on all parties to end the sieges on Madaya, Foua, and Kfarya.

Syria’s civil war, which pits the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad against rebels who can be equally as brutal.