U.N. aid convoys reach besieged Syrian towns and confirm starvation

U.N. and relief agency workers saw starving people in two besieged Syrian areas where aid deliveries were made on Monday. However, Syria’s envoy to the United Nations dismissed the reports that civilians in the towns were dying of starvation as fabrications. The ambassador said his government had in Oct. approved aid deliveries to Madaya and accused “terrorists inside” the town of stealing the supplies.

Actually, there was no starvation in Madaya…the Syrian government is not and will not exert any policy of starvation on its own people.

Ambassador Bashar Jaafari

The situation in Madaya is the latest example of both sides using hunger as a weapon in Syria’s war, now in its fifth year. The town has attracted particular attention in recent days after reports of deaths and images of severely malnourished residents circulated across social media. The images prompted a media war. Some government supporters have used social media to mock the photos, saying they were fake, while others claimed it was the rebels who were withholding food from needy residents.

We have seen with our own eyes severely malnourished children. I am sure there also malnourished older people… and so there is starvation.

Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Syria

Middle East Madaya