The humanitarian challenge of besieged towns in Syria

The truce between the belligerents allowed to send aid to besieged areas and until today deprived of everything.

“It is imperative that we do receive vegetables, meat and milk. We have so much need of fresh products, ” begs Safa at the phone. Safa is a teacher in Madaya, city besieged by the Syrian army, only 30 km from Damascus. Other villages around are also besieged either by the Syrian regime or the rebels. Residents of Madaya, mostly children and elderly people, died of hunger in recent months, and disease. “We have no hospital, no doctor.” Safa described food-population problem : “For 5 years, children eat only one meal a day, and for months, they only absorb starches, beans, lentils. They have swollen bellies and no energy. I am their teacher, I see they are tired all the time, they have the sad look. ”

Aid trucks sometimes blocked at checkpoints

After the publication of images of faces and emaciated bodies of some of its inhabitants, the media pressure yielded the Syrian government to loose the grip on Madaya and other besieged towns, and lets get in, on 14th and 18th January, the UN truckloads of food and medicine. Another convoy is expected to reach the town on early March with food but no green vegetables, no meat, no milk. The rations consist of flour, rice, lentils, oil, dates, high-protein food for children, etc.

“This war in Syria is a humanitarian nightmare, admits Bettina Luescher, one of the spokesmen of World Food Programme (WFP), because if we can provide assistance to about 4.5 million Syrians, we can not intervene in besieged cities without the consent of the belligerents. Most of the time we do not get it, and when we have the green light, sometimes the trucks stranded at checkpoints. It is necessary that we get permanent access to besieged areas to make an inventory of needs. ”

The ceasefire allows help new locations

On February 29th, the UN teams have delivered for the first time since the start of the truce between government and rebels, aid – cleaning products, soaps and blankets – in Mouadamiyat Al-Sham, another rebel town located in the southwest of Damascus and encircled by the army. Building on this ceasefire which excludes jihadist groups, the UN announced it would provide assistance in the coming days to 154 000 people living in other towns besieged by the various belligerents.

“Over 450 000 people are trapped in towns and villages of Syria, sometimes for years,” said the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein. The promised funds (€ 622 million) during the conference “Supporting Syria and the area” in early February, will enable the complete restoration of food assistance for refugees in the neighboring countries of Syria to the end of the year. They also allow WFP to provide a complete food basket to interior Syrian from April to October 2016.

Translation of the article (Agnès Rotivel) published on La Croix website