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UN praises Syria call for more aid delivery to crisis-hit towns

Tuesday, 12 January 2016 11:36 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 12 January 2016 3:23 PM ]

A convoy of aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) waits on the outskirts of the Syrian town of Madaya, on January 11, 2016. ©AFP

The UN humanitarian chief has welcomed the Syrian government’s call for continued aid deliveries to crisis-hit areas as relief aid arrives in three Syrian towns cut off for months by conflict.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien said Monday’s delivery of aid convoys to the towns of Madaya, Kefraya and Foua must not be “either one-off or exceptional.”

O’Brien, who was talking to reporters after briefing the UN Security Council’s closed door meeting, said the arrival of relief goods must become the model for regular aid deliveries to civilians caught in conflict, which is a requirement under international law.

Earlier on Monday, a convoy of 44 trucks loaded with food, baby formula, blankets and other supplies entered Madaya, just 24 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of the capital Damascus. An equivalent amount of aid would also arrive in two northern towns of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib Province.

Reports have emerged over the past few days claiming that several people have died of starvation in the southwestern town of Madaya, most of them patients.

Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Ja’afari ©AFP

However, Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Ja’afari rebuffed reports of starving civilians in Madaya as fabrications, saying such accounts are intended to defame the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Ja’afari further reiterated the Syrian government’s commitment to cooperating fully with the UN and the Red Cross to deliver humanitarian aid to all civilians “without any discrimination,” including those in hard-to-reach areas.

The Syrian diplomat further noted that aid delivered to Madaya in October had been looted by terrorist groups and sold to civilians at prices they could not afford.

On Sunday, locals also told the Lebanese al-Manar TV that terrorist groups, including the so-called Jaish al-Fath and Ahrar al-Sham Movement, stored aid packages delivered to Madaya last October and sold it to the locals at sky-high prices.

According to the UN, up to 4.5 million people live in hard-to-reach areas of Syria which has witnessed a deadly conflict fueled by foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists since March 2011.

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