He said: “People are surviving by consuming water with sugar, salt or spices if they can find any”.
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The situation in Foah and Kefraya was also said to be extremely dire with an estimated number of 20,000 people trapped there since March.
A convoy consisting of Red Cross, Red Crescent and United Nation gather before heading towards to Madaya from Damascus, and to al Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, Syria on January 11, 2016.
“I saw a young man killing cats and presenting the meat to members of his family as rabbit. I know other people who collected their food from the trash and others who ate grass”, one resident who was not named told BBC News. “It’s cold and raining but there is excitement because we are here with food and blankets”.
“We need full access and that’s what we agreed on in the ISSG [International Syria Support Group] meeting in NY and the UN Security Council”, he said Monday during a news conference. After briefing the UN Security Council he said they needed treatment for medical complications, severe malnourishment and starvation.
Mr van Bohemen said he had spoken to the leader of the first aid convoy into Madaya.
Red Cross spokesman Pawel Krzysiek, who accompanied the aid convoy into Madaya, said the effects of the siege on residents were obvious.
“Some are smiling and waving at us but many are just simply too weak, with a very bleak expression, too exhausted”. “We are in negotiations with all parties”, Krzysiek said.
Dozens are thought to have died from starvation or a lack of medical care in Madaya, and activists say some of the town’s inhabitants were reduced to eating leaves. (Reuters) Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said the reports were aimed at “demonising” the Assad regime and “torpedoing” peace talks later this month.
“The Syrian government has demanded our support against terrorism and we, anyway, stood alongside (President Bashar) Assad, who enjoys his people’s support”, he said. The relief effort is part of an agreement between warring sides, according to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
He said the government had allowed two months’ worth of humanitarian aid into the town in October, which had been diverted by armed groups. So far, 7.8 tons of medical aid, including trauma kits for wounds and medications for treating chronic and communicable diseases, have been delivered, Hoff said.
More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in nearly five years of conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a brutal civil war. The U.N. says 4.5 million Syrians are living in besieged or hard-to-reach areas and desperately need humanitarian aid, with civilians prevented from leaving and aid workers blocked from bringing in food, medicine, fuel and other supplies.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday called on the Syrian regime to end the siege of rebel-held Madaya and said a halt to airstrikes by the regime and its Russian ally was an “absolute necessity”.
The trucks, carrying food and medical supplies reached Madaya near the border Syria shares with Lebanon.
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The ambassador suggested that reports of starvation were aimed at “demonizing” the Assad regime and “torpedoing” peace talks planned for January 25 in Geneva. “Aid agencies must be given safe and unimpeded access to all these people to provide them with the aid they need, especially now in the midst of winter”, said Ms Gasser.
