‘Starvation as a weapon is a war crime’ says UN Secretary General

The intentional starvation of the Syrian people in besieged areas constitutes a war crime, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday in NY.

Earlier Thursday, the Madaya-bound convoy of 44 trucks arrived on the outskirts of the city, in a mountainous area 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Damascus, awaiting word that the other convoy of about 20 trucks had reached al-Fouaa and Kefraya from Damascus, she said.

The UN children’s agency said yesterday 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 a besieged Syrian town near Damascus. “The children I talked to said they had no strength to play”.

France’s United Nations mission said a request for an emergency meeting was made Thursday to Uruguay, which holds the rotating Security Council presidency.

In December, 23 people died of starvation in Madaya, Doctors Without Borders said today.

United Nations teams are working to provide on-site treatment in Madaya and negotiate the evacuations of residents suffering from acute malnourishment, she said.

Ban said both the Syrian government and rebels are committing war crimes by deliberately starving civilians and must face justice.

Unicef Syria representative Hanaa Singer (center) speaks with children near Madaya in Syria.

Syrian ally Russian Federation complained that much attention was focused on Madaya, with Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov saying “not a word” was said about the other towns under rebel siege.

The town of 42,000 had been under siege by government forces for months, and had last received a single food distribution on 18 October. Ban said, ” All sides-including the Syrian government which has the primary responsibility to protect Syrians-are committing this and other atrocious acts prohibited under worldwide humanitarian law”.

Abeer Pamuk, communications advisor for the group who travelled to Madaya, said on arrival in Madaya, they saw “an overwhelming amount of people, all were extremely skinny and very pale”.

In recent days, the world’s conscience has been shocked by harrowing images of malnutrition and hunger in the Syrian town of Madaya, where siege and starvation, which top United Nations officials say is being used as a “weapon of war”, is having devastating consequences for civilians.

In a statement UNICEF and World Health Organization said Thursday that their teams met distressed and hungry children – some of them severely malnourished, along with adults in a similar condition during their visit Monday.

The U.N. Security Council will be briefed on Friday on the besiegement of some 400,000 people in Syria, according to Reuters. However, it soon degenerated into an armed conflict, with rebel forces vowing to remove Assad from power. Some of these groups are backed by the West. The almost five-year-long civil war has created a massive humanitarian disaster, a refugee crisis that has long-term political implications for Syria’s neighbors, and a massive influx of migrants to Europe.

For months, the Syrian town has been besieged by parties to the conflict – a war soon entering its sixth year.

The Islamic State group is surrounding about 200,000 people in the Deir Ezzor area of eastern Syria.