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Tuesday 12 Jan 2016 - 10:11 Makkah mean time-2-4-1437
Humanitarian convoy on its way to Madaya (UN Photo)
Madaya (IINA) – A humanitarian convoy has finally reached the besieged Syrian town of Madaya with life-saving health and food supplies from the UN and its partners for the 42,000 desperate residents after reports of people starving to death under encirclement by pro-Syrian regime forces.
The first four trucks of the 49-truck convoy unloaded in the besieged town to help relieve a situation that UN officials last week called “horrendous…ghastly," said Sajjad Malik, representative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The inter-agency convoy to Madaya brought life-saving items, including health, nutrition and food supplies, blankets, shelter materials, and soap for the people. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said 23 people starved to death in the town in December, six of them children.
Partner agencies are providing food and medicine through the convoys organized by the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria Yacoub El Hillo said that it has taken long and patient negotiations with many parties to facilitate the convoy. He noted that while there is much focus on Madaya, where the situation requires an immediate response, the UN and its humanitarian partners are equally concerned about the 4.5 million people living in besieged and hard-to-reach areas across Syria, including nearly 400,000 in 15 besieged locations without access to the aid that they desperately need.
“We continue to call on all parties to the conflict to facilitate sustained and unimpeded access to all people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria,” El Hillo stressed.
AB/IINA
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