The UN children’s agency said it has witnessed cases of severe malnutrition among children in a besieged Syrian town and the death of a teenager “in front of our eyes”.
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While the government forces and its allies should allow essential supplies to reach Madaya, the mainstream media needs to focus on who is denying the food from reaching the people in Madaya and who are preventing the people from leaving?
More than two dozen people have reportedly starved to death since December, sparking a global outcry. “According to a member of the relief committee 32 people have died of starvation in the last 30-day period”. Britain’s mission said the meeting was requested for Friday afternoon, but it has not yet been scheduled.
For months, tens of thousands have been blockaded by government troops in Madaya and surrounded by rebel forces in the two villages.
Separately on Thursday, UNICEF as part of a UN, SARC [Syrian Arab Red Cross], ICRC joint convoy, 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.
Madaya, about 25 miles northwest of the Syrian capital, Damascus, has gained worldwide attention in recent weeks as reports have surfaced of a looming humanitarian disaster in the opposition-held town that has been surrounded by pro-government forces for months. The source said the convoy hopes to reach Madaya shortly.
“Their parents had nothing to feed them”. She said the two boys’ bodies “were skeleton-like”. “Thus, the children looked smaller and younger than their real ages”. “They were skinny, tired, severely distressed”. “They could barely walk or talk”.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday Syria’s warring parties, particularly the government, were committing “atrocious acts” and he condemned the use of starvation as a weapon of war in the almost five-year-old conflict.
The United Nations is struggling to deliver aid to about 4.5 million Syrians who live in hard-to-reach areas, including almost 400,000 people in besieged areas.
He called it “unnecessary noise” that could undermine the Geneva talks.
“Madaya is just the tip of the iceberg”, said British Deputy Ambassador Peter Wilson, warning that the images of emaciated children could be repeated “many, many times over”.
More than 250,000 Syrians – largely civilians – have been killed, according to the United Nations.
In a joint statement, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said: “The access granted for limited deliveries of humanitarian supplies is not enough”.
“In general, they saw pretty horrific scenes of women, children, and elderly, and malnourishment”, she told The Associated Press.
“You can not let more people die under your watch”. “It is important right now to maintain this humanitarian access…”
With global pressure building on Syria, a senior Red Cross official said there were prospects for an end to the sieges.
The Russian defense ministry did not say when, or in which part of the city, the aid drop occurred.
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The U.N. said its teams had worked with local health staff to set up a stabilization center and outpatient services for the treatment of malnutrition in Madaya.
