United Nations agency: Starving Syrian teen died ‘in front of our eyes’

“UNICEF is particularly saddened and shocked to have witnessed the death of Ali, a severely malnourished 16-year-old boy who passed away in the town’s clinic in front of our eyes”, spokesman Christophe Boulierac told a press conference. They also found six children between the ages of 6 and 18 suffering from severe malnutrition.

“In general, they saw pretty horrific scenes of women, children, and elderly, and malnourishment”, she told The Associated Press.

Ban said the United Nations and its humanitarian partners are able to deliver food to only 1 percent of the 400,000 people under siege in Syria, down from 5 percent just over a year ago.

Before an earlier convoy of aid arrived Monday, bringing many starving residents to tears, Madaya had received no foreign aid since October.

The plight of Madaya and other besieged areas has prompted the UN Security Council to call an emergency meeting for Friday, amid warnings that the use of starvation as a weapon constitutes a war crime.

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

The second convoy of aid lorries in a week has set off for the rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya, which is under siege from government forces, according to BBC News.

The use of starvation as a weapon in Syria is “a war crime”, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.

In this photo released on Tuesday, Jan 12, 2016, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian government troops and allied militiamen walk inside the key town of Salma in Latakia province, Syria.

Convoys carrying food, medical and other supplies have left Damascus headed to the besieged rebel-held town of Madaya, near the Syrian capital.

About 50 trucks are part of the latest convoy that left for Madaya.

Another aid worker who entered Madaya, Abeer Pamuk of SOS Children’s Villages in Syria, said the situation is so devastating that desperate parents resort to giving children sleeping pills in order to calm their hunger. “Doctors were emotionally distressed and mentally drained, working ’round the clock with very limited resources to provide treatment to children and people in need”. Instead, those cases will be treated by doctors and nutritionists traveling with the convoy, the source said. The terrorist group ISIS has taken over large swaths of the country and neighboring Iraq.

The Syrian government and the United Nations have championed similar localised ceasefire deals as a way to end fighting across Syria, where more than 260,000 people have been killed since 2011.