Vital aid arrives in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya

The United Nations has asked the Syrian government to allow the 400 Syrians to be airlifted out of Madaya where medical charity MSF says 28 people have starved to death since December 1.

Dr Mohamed Youssef, the manager of the medical council in Madaya, said two or three people people were dying of starvation every day in addition to about 50 fainting or falling severely ill as widespread starvation takes hold of the town.

SANA said the deliveries were headed toward the adjacent Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in Idlib province, under siege by rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad, as well as toward Madaya, which is blockaded by government troops and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the aid was planned to avoid an impending humanitarian disaster, as said by aid officials concerning the matter. The OIC General Secretariat affirmed that it has been following with deep concern the critical humanitarian situation which has claimed the lives of hundreds of people due to starvation and disease.

There are believed to be around 40,000 people in Madaya and around 20,000 people in Foua and Kefraya.

A few town residents were given permission to leave and could be seen with their belongings awaiting evacuation.

A group of eight major global aid groups, including CARE worldwide, Oxfam, and Save the Children, welcomed the aid convoy but also warned that a one-time delivery won’t save starving people. Madaya’s residents last received food and supplies six months ago.

“There is no comparison to what we saw in Madaya”, he said from Damascus by telephone to Geneva.

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

“Around 400 are in need of being evacuated for life-saving medical attention”, O’Brien said in NY.

Spokesman Pawel Krzysiek, who reached Madaya with the trucks, said the “first impression is really heartbreaking”.

State television said pro-government forces also seized surrounding hilltops and were combing them for landmines and explosive devices.

Reports of widespread malnutrition have also emerged, suggesting that the residents have resorted to eating grass and insects for survival.

According to the United Nations, the packages of rice, lentils and oil should last the people for a month, even as reports of pilferage and looting started trickling in.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, said it had taken long and patient negotiations with many parties to facilitate the convoy.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said the people of Madaya had dismissed the head of the town’s military council because he tried to put the newly delivered aid in warehouses.

At least 15 sieges continue across Syria, with an estimated 400,000 people trapped in worsening conditions.

Madaya was a topic of discussion Monday at a U.N. meeting in NY, where New Zealand U.N. Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen told reporters “the tactic of siege and starvation is one of the most appalling characteristics of the Syrian conflict”.

More than 260 000 people have died in Syria’s conflict, which has evolved from anti-government protests to a bloody war that diplomatic efforts have thus far failed to resolve.

Russia, a staunch ally of Assad, began a campaign of air strikes in support of the regime in late September.