Aid trucks enter besieged Syria town

The last rounds of United Nations brokered talks two years ago ended with little progress.

“They are in grave peril of losing their lives”.

The humanitarian aid to Madaya, blockaded by government troops and their allies for months, is part of a large-scale U.N.-supported aid operation in the war-ravaged country. Spokesman Pawel Krzysiek, who reached Madaya with the trucks, said the “first impression is really heartbreaking”.

“We need full access – and that’s what we agreed on in the ISSG meeting in NY and the UN Security Council and we’re raising it to all parties right now”, he said. “It can’t be just a one-off situation”.

“It’s not progress on the political front or progress on the humanitarian front”.

Madaya has been ravaged by starvation in the Syrian civil war.

“The problem is the terrorists are stealing the humanitarian assistance from the Syrian Red Crescent as well as from the United Nations”.

Trucks carrying food, medicine and blankets leave Damascus en route to the besieged town of Madaya on Monday. At the town’s entrance, several civilians — including five children shivering against the cold — said they were waiting to be taken out.

“Today’s delivery of food is extremely welcome – but it is only a temporary respite that will run out again in a few weeks unless regular aid is allowed in”, Save the Children’s Middle East Advocacy Director, Misty Buswell, said as part of a statement from eight NGOs, including Oxfam and World Vision.

An aid convoy is to simultaneously enter the Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in Idlib province, under siege by rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.

The council met to discuss the situation in Madaya where residents told AFP they had resorted to eating grass and killing cats for meat to survive. Living conditions there have deteriorated as winter sets in.

There are numerous reports of extreme hunger and starvation in the Madaya area.

The last time aid was delivered to Madaya was in October.

Thirteen people who tried to escape in search of food were shot by snipers or killed when they stepped on landmines, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Over the weekend, MSF said 23 people had died of starvation since December 1 at one of the facilities it supports in Madaya. It’s not only about Madaya, in Madaya we have 42,000 people.

“We are going to follow this issue very closely”.

O’Brien said trucks were being unloaded Monday night by flashlight and the light from iPhones. A convoy carrying a month’s supply of food and medicine was greeted by hundreds.

The Syrian Ambassador told reporters the pictures of staving people were “fabrications”.

New Zealand and Spanish ambassadors have called for the urgent evacuation of 400 people in dire need of medical evacuation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross published photos of the convoy entering Madaya as darkness fell.

Foua and Kafyra are two mostly Shi’ite villages, besieged by rebels, that also received deliveries from Monday’s convoy.