Abeer Pamuk, a representative of SOS Children’s Villages in Syria, who visited Madaya separately pointed out that none of the children he saw looked healthy.
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A second aid convoy reached the besieged Syrian city of Madaya on Thursday, being stationed on the outskirts and poised to deliver much-needed food and humanitarian supplies, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
On Thursday, UN was able to send 10 trucks with a similar range of supplies to two other besieged areas, Foah and Kafraya benefitting the estimated 6,000 children trapped in the area, UNICEF said. Speaking after briefing the U.N. General Assembly on his 2016 priorities, Ban said harrowing images of starving civilians in the besieged town of Madaya reflected a new low in a war that had already reached “shocking depths of inhumanity”.
Syrian state media said six trucks have entered Madaya. Madaya is a rebel-held town being besieged by government forces; Fua and Kafraya are held by the government and besieged by rebels. The trucks were mainly carrying wheat flour and hygiene products.
BEIRUT – Aid workers scrambled on Friday to help a hunger-stricken Syrian town where a teenager became the latest victim to succumb to starvation, as Western powers sought United Nations (UN) action on lifting blockades. “Let me be clear: the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime”, Ban told reporters. “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”, he added.
“This is utterly unconscionable”, Mr. Ban stated.
A mobile clinic and medical team of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was on its way to Madaya after the government approved an urgent request, and a vaccination campaign is planned next week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
As of Thursday, there were no reports of any evacuations from the area.
Singer said the people the agency met in Madaya were “exhausted and extremely frail”.
Officials who travelled to the town with the first aid convoy on Monday reported “heartbreaking” and nightmarish scenes they said were the worst they had seen in Syria. The town’s population of 40,000 is being served by only two doctors, with a limited capacity to save the lives of civilians.
The Secretary-General said there can be no denying their suffering: “Many hundreds of people are in such a dire state that they require immediate medical attention, including through possible evacuation”, he stressed.
The plight of Madaya and other besieged areas prompted the UN Security Council to call an emergency meeting for Friday, amid warnings that the use of starvation as a weapon constituted a war crime.
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The UN has called for the end of all sieges across the country as a confidence-building measure ahead of peace talks between opposition and rebel factions and the regime schedule for January 25.
