The town, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Damascus, has been blockaded for months by government troops and Hezbollah.
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“The UN welcomes today’s approval from the government of Syria to access Madaya, Fuaa and Kafraya and is preparing to deliver humanitarian assistance in the coming days”, a UN statement said. Twenty-three patients have died of starvation, the aid group said, including six patients under the age of 1.
Also Monday, SANA reported that rocket fire presumably fired by rebels hit a residential neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo, killing three children and wounding two other people.
Madaya has been besieged by government-aligned forces since July.
Five more people have died of starvation in the Syrian town of Madaya, the global charity Médecins Sans Frontières has confirmed, a day before aid convoys were scheduled to arrive in the besieged Damascus suburb. It is surrounded by land mines, entrapping its residents and severely restricting food and healthcare supplies.
The blockade of Madaya has been a big issue for Syrian opposition leaders, who told they United Nations they refuse to take part in peace talks planned for this month until the siege is lifted, Al Jazeera reported.
Starvation deaths in the Syrian town of Madaya is on the rise.
Government forces have been able to airdrop some supplies into Fuaa and Kafraya, which are home to around 20,000 people, but rebel forces are not able to do the same for Madaya.
Tammam Aloudat, the organisation’s Deputy Medical Director, said there were 150 people severely ill, 10 of them in critical condition, in a local hospital supported by the organisation. The release was also noted on the station’s social media pages.
Representative from the ICRC and the Syrian Red Crescent entered the town shortly after noon ahead of the arrival of the aid convoy, he added.
The tragic situation of children in Madaya was an example of the dire situation of the 4.5 million people, over two million of them children, living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas, he said.
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The conflict in Syria, which has killed over 250,000 people according to the United Nations, will mark its fifth year in March.
