Madaya: medics on way to besieged Syrian town

The Syrian government has said it is ready to take part in the talks, but wants to see who is on the opposition negotiating team and a list of armed groups that will be classified as terrorists as part of the peace process.

“The people we met in Madaya were exhausted and extremely frail”, Singer said. “It is simply unacceptable that this is happening in the 21st century”, she emphasized.

Convoys reached Madaya and two nearby towns yesterday (Jan 14), taking basic food, medicine and aid for the second time this week, as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations declared that “the use of food as a weapon is a war crime” and called on the Syrian government and all warring parties to lift their sieges immediately.

“The elderly and children, men and women, who were little more than skin and bones: gaunt, severely malnourished, so weak they could barely walk, and utterly desperate for the slightest morsel”, he said.

Monday’s first delivery faced various hurdles at the series of government checkpoints into Madaya, often linked with the need to simultaneously match the progress of the convoy into Fua and Kefraya.

In 2014, the United Nations and partners were reportedly able to deliver food to about five per cent of people in besieged areas, while today, estimates show the Organization is reaching less than one per cent.

“Combatants have showed complete and utter disregard for Madaya’s people”, Ban added.

“Let me be clear: the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime”, Ban said on Thursday.

“All sides, including the Syrian government, which has the primary responsibility to protect Syrians, are committing atrocious acts prohibited under global humanitarian law”.

The U.N. children’s agency said Friday that it witnessed the death of a teenager who died of starvation “in front of our eyes”, as well as several cases of severe malnutrition among children trapped in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya near Damascus.

Pawel Krzysiek, spokesman for ICRC Syria, tweeted that all trucks in the convoys had entered the blockaded cities, and the offloading of their cargo had begun. He has used Sarin gas against his own people, and he has killed countless more with barrel bombs loaded with explosives, metals, and chlorine gas. Before an earlier convoy of aid arrived Monday, bringing many starving residents to tears, Madaya had received no foreign aid since October.

Singer said the two boys’ bodies “were skeleton-like”.

Lt.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military’s General Staff said that to date most of the aid delivered by worldwide groups had been sent to areas under the rebel control and most of it had fallen into the hands of extremists.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre told AFP that the meeting, expected to be held tomorrow, “will draw the world’s attention to the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding in Madaya and in other towns in Syria”.

The UN has called for almost 400 Madaya residents who need immediate medical care to be evacuated.

The UN agency said Madaya’s doctors were “emotionally distressed and mentally drained, working round the clock with very limited resources”.

The civil war in Syria is nearing its five-year mark, with the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad pitted against rebels.