400 starving Syrians must be evacuated now or face death — United Nations official

The UN aims to build local ceasefires and humanitarian operations across the country as part of global peace talks between the regime and rebels scheduled for the end of January.

“They are in grave peril of losing their lives”, O’Brien told reporters after a UN Security Council meeting.

“We must seek to do this and put the arrangements in place as soon as possible for medical treatment”.

Last week, the United Nations said only 10 percent of its requested aid deliveries to hard-to-reach and besieged areas of Syria past year were approved and carried out.

Aid agencies also confessed there are only enough supplies to last for about a month.

Pawel Kyzysiek, International Committee of the Red Cross Spokesperson: “It’s really heart-breaking to see the situation of the people. Some are smiling and waving at us but many are just simply too weak, with a very bleak expression, too exhausted”, he said in an audio message.

“The tactic of siege and starvation is one of the most appalling characteristics of the Syrian conflict”, New Zealand’s permanent representative to the UN, Gerard van Bohemen, said. “I have four young children who haven’t had milk and food for seven months”.

Meanwhile the UN said its envoy to Syria would meet on Wednesday with ambassadors from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

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

The Madaya blockade began six months ago when the Syrian army and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, started a campaign to re-establish President Bashar al-Assad’s control over areas along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

But Syria’s United Nations ambassador Bashar Ja’afari denied anyone was starving in Madaya and blamed Arab television especially “for fabricating these allegations and lies”.

He says some of the humanitarian aid previously sent to Syria was looted by opposition and terrorist groups operating in the country.

“So the Syrian government is not and will not exert any policy of starvation against its own people”.

The inter-agency convoy to Madaya brought life-saving items, including health, nutrition and food supplies, blankets, shelter materials, and soap for the people.

The television channel of Hezbollah, which is fighting in Syria alongside Assad’s forces, reported that 40 trucks were expected to enter the northern villages, with another 40 headed to Madaya.

Food has been so scarce that people “repeatedly mentioned that a kilo of rice would cost US$300”, Malik said. So far, 7.8 tons of medical aid, including trauma kits for wounds and medications for treating chronic and communicable diseases, have been delivered, Hoff said.

The Sunni rebels swiftly targeted Foua and Kefraya – predominantly loyalist Shia villages lying less than a mile apart.

Tales of hunger and hardship have emerged from those inside all three communities. Activists have reported several deaths from starvation over the past weeks in the affected areas, and images of starvation have been circulated across social media.

The UN coordinators have earlier called on the conflicting sides in Syria to ensure access to humanitarian aid for people who live in 15 besieged locations in Syria such as Deir Ez-Zor city, Daraya, Foah and Kafraya, as well as East Ghouta.

The group’s Al Manar television showed footage on Monday of hundreds of Madaya residents gathered outdoors waiting to receive aid. “Of course they will confiscate this humanitarian assistance and use it as a matter of gaining at the detriment of the civilian population”.

Ms Ghosn also blamed rebels in Madaya, saying: “Their depots are full while we go hungry”.