Geneva – Syria has given approval for humanitarian convoys to reach all of the country’s 19 besieged areas by the end of this month, but warned that “approval… does not mean delivery”, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance has reportedly severed the Islamic State group’s main supply route to Turkey.
Daraya, southwest of the Syrian capital, has been under siege by the regime forces since November 2012. A recent estimate by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research says that 470,000 people have been either directly or indirectly killed by the war.
An earlier aid convoy went in at the start of the month containing mainly non-food items such as vaccines, after getting authorisation from the government.
The U.N. estimates 592,700 people live under siege in all of Syria, with about 452,700 of them under blockades by government forces.
One rebel, Shadi Matar, confirmed that the first food convoy had arrived late Thursday.
In the past, the Syrian government has approved humanitarian convoys into besieged areas only to stop them at the last moment at a road block or to remove medicines and other supplies intended for civilians, de Mistura said.
In a statement, the World Food Programme said it provided enough food baskets to feed 2,400 people for about a month, but Daraya has a population of about 8,000 people.
“We did get the information today from one main source, but we would like to have more information, that some substantial number of (rebel) fighters appear to have been released”, de Mistura said. Moreover, the Kurdish led Syrian democratic forces said it has now put the ISIL stronghold of Manbj under a full siege making the retaking of the city a matter of days according to a local commander taking part in the offensive.
Access to al Waer in Homs province was still under discussion, he said.
Advertisement
Not long after Daraya, Syria, received food aid for the first time since 2012, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad began bombing the city. It said he was wounded while covering a government artillery bombardment and was in an ambulance that later was hit by a shell, killing him and the driver.
