Residents of the western town of Madaya have told United Nations investigators how the weakest in their midst, deprived of food and medicines in violation of global law, are suffering starvation and death, the top United Nations war crimes investigator told Reuters Tuesday.
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Earlier, an aid convoy brought food to 40,000 town residents who have been under government siege for months.
Those words never resonated more heavily with Pawel Krzysiek than on Monday when he came to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya with a convoy of long-awaited food and medicine.
A local doctor said 300 to 400 people needed special medical care, according to Elizabeth Hoff, the World Health Organization representative in Damascus who went into Madaya with the convoy. “We must seek to do this and put the arrangements in place as soon as at all possible for medical treatment or they are in grave peril of losing their lives and dying with either the causes being from malnutrition or for complications for other medical reasons”, he said.
“We saw thousands of people in desperation, thousands of people who are severely malnourished, older people who were in dire physical condition because of lack of regular access to food”, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, said. He said a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice would sell there for $300, and noted one account of one person selling a motorcycle to buy 5 kg of rice.
Government forces and allied fighters with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have blockaded the rebel-controlled town since July.
Meanwhile the UN said its envoy to Syria would meet on Wednesday with ambassadors from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Linda Tom, a spokeswoman with the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), confirmed new aid deliveries were planned for Madaya, where more than two dozen people are thought to have died from lack of food, and two other towns.
Many people have lost their lives while waiting.
“Siege tactics, by their nature, target the civilian population by subjecting them to starvation, denial of basic essential services and medicines”, Pinheiro said on Tuesday. There are more than 400,000 people living in besieged areas across Syria.
He added: “If they are not evacuated tonight, the situation will be more than dramatic tomorrow”.
The town, along with neighbouring Zabadani in Damascus province, are under government siege, and Madaya residents have also reportedly died after stepping on landmines or being shot by snipers while trying to leave in search of food.
The World Health Organisation says it has asked the Syrian government to allow it to send mobile clinics and medical teams to Madaya to assess the extent of malnutrition and evacuate the worst cases.
The patients could be taken to hospitals in Damascus to receive urgent medical aid, he said.
Negotiations to get into Madaya and the other two villages near Idlib were lengthy and hard.
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British counterterrorism police said Tuesday that they are “deeply concerned” about the increasing number of girls and women traveling to Syria from the United Kingdom, saying that many are unaware that they will likely never be able to return home.
