Second aid convoy departs for besieged Syrian communities

A convoy of trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies are seen heading to the besieged town of Madaya, some 24 kilometers in southwest Damascus, Syria, on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016 for distribution as part of a large-scale U.N.-sponsored aid operation in the war-ravaged country. In its latest report, UN OCHA said there are 393,700 Syrians now besieged, while NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres says as many as two million people are affected.

Blockades have been a feature of Syria’s conflict. The town’s 40,000 residents have endured a crippling siege by pro-government forces that has drawn sharp condemnation from the worldwide community.

The Madaya convoy also included a nutritionist and health teams to assess the humanitarian situation, said Tarek Wheibi, spokesperson for the ICRC in Beirut.

He said all sides – including the Syrian Government – are committing this and other “atrocious acts” prohibited under worldwide humanitarian law.

Meanwhile, a second United Nations aid convoy this week reached the town on Thursday.

Under the terms of the deal, the aid must be delivered in both regions simultaneously, said Dibeh Fakhr, the ICRC’s Near and Middle East spokeswoman.

Dozens of trucks left Damascus for the town of Madaya at the Lebanese border, and the two villages of Kefraya and al-Foua in rebel-held Idlib province.

The Syrian Observatory said it had recorded 27 deaths in Madaya from malnutrition and lack of medical supplies, and at least 13 deaths in al-Foua and Kefraya due to lack of medical supplies.

“We are encouraged that we have been able to reach these towns, where thousands of people have been trapped for very long periods of time”, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, told reporters.

The talks planned for January 25 in Geneva are part of a peace process endorsed by the U.N. Security Council last month in a rare display of global agreement on Syria, where the war has killed 250,000 people.

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.

Furthermore, he said other urgent measures are needed – such as the immediate end to the use of indiscriminate weapons in civilian areas, including through shelling and air strikes by any of the parties involved militarily in Syria.

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.