UN envoy in Syria ahead of upcoming peace talks in Geneva

Bashar al-AssadSyria’s foreign minister on Saturday said his government was still waiting to receive the names of opposition figures attending peace talks later this month in Geneva, state news reported. However, the United Nations said Thursday it had received “credible reports” of people dying of starvation and said that the Syrian government had agreed to allow aid convoys into Madaya, Foah and Kefraya.

The UN on Thursday said it had received permission from the Syrian government to access Madaya to deliver aid there in the coming days.

The Syrian opposition is demanding some gestures by the government ahead of the talks including lifting sieges imposed on rebel-held areas, releasing some detainees and ending airstrikes.

“Where are the confidence-building measures?” al-Maleh asked, speaking by telephone from Cairo.

A source who is close to Damascus and familiar with the situation in Madaya denied civilians had been prevented from leaving, and said the number of people in the town had been exaggerated.

“Almost 42,000 people remaining in Madaya are at risk of further hunger and starvation”.

Abu Khalil is one of those trapped in Madaya.

Syrian starvation has recently hit the news as photos of adults and children living in Madaya have spread through social media.

The conflict which began in March 2011 has killed more than 250,000 people and wounded more than a million.

Madaya, located 1,300 metres above sea level in a mountainous region straddling the border with Lebanon, is home to 30,000 people who have been under siege since July, as part of a complicated power play. Adding to the difficulty of reaching the citizens of this city in order to relieve Syrian starvation are the numerous landmines and the treacherous travel across snow covered mountains that is required in order to reach these people.

People in Fua and Kefraya are also enduring a debilitating siege after a rebel coalition known as Jaysh al Fateh surrounded the two Shia-majority enclaves in Idlib province in the spring of past year.

Meanwhile the UN’s mediator in the Syrian conflict, Staffan de Mistura, is in Damascus trying to lay the groundwork for peace talks planned later this month.

MSF said that 23 of its patients in the town, including six babies, have died in the past month due to a lack of food. He also highlighted resettlement, humanitarian visas and family reunification as tools which can allow refugees to find safety in other countries, “not through trafficking but by what we call legal pathways”.

“We are awaiting answers from Mr. Di Mistura”.

Pro-government forces surrounding the town, believed by locals to be Hezbollah fighters, have offered food in exchange for weapons handed in by rebel fighters, residents say.

Speaking in Geneva today, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said an aid convoy bringing food and medical supplies would go to the besieged city in “a few days” but that there was still no firm date of delivery.

“Basically we’ll be crossing from the territory controlled by one side to the territory controlled by another”, Krzysiek said.