Western powers have accused Syria’s government of dropping barrel bombs on the town of Daraya hours after it received its first food aid in nearly four years.
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Shadi Matar, a local council member, said aid had not yet been distributed “because of the intensity of the raids”.
However, violence was reported on Friday in the rebel-held area as crude barrel bombs have been dropped on the suburb, according to the Local Council of Daraya.
Daraya, which has been under siege by government forces since November 2012, has witnessed some of the worst bombardment during the country’s civil war.
He said that WFP had delivered about 480 food rations that would feed about 2,400 individuals for one month. The UN estimates around 4,000 to 8,000 people live in Daraya, located southeast of Damascus.
An official with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said that he had met some beneficiaries of the food aid and community leaders.
“Most families are having to do with one meal, which isn’t complete as a meal, a day in order to be able to get by”, he said.
The aid groups brought enough food to feed 2,400 people for a month, as well as enough health and hygiene supplies for the entire estimated population of around 4,000 for the same time period, United Nations spokesman Jans Laerke told reporters.
Almost 600,000 people live in besieged areas in Syria, most surrounded by government forces, and another four million in hard-to-reach areas, according to the UN.
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According to a press release issued by the United Nations agency, more convoys are planned to all of the 19 besieged locations in Syria as part of the plan for June, following the Government of Syria’s approval to reach all these locations. The government forces bombarded the town shortly after, dropping indiscriminate barrel bombs from helicopters as residents shared food. “They are carrying food aid, including dry goods and flour, non-food aid as well as medical aid”, Tamam Mehrez, operations director of the Syrian Red Crescent told AFP.
