Syria. Haggard inhabitants, thinner than life (PAM)
(B2) The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced Thursday that it has provided food to more than 80.000 people trapped in five besieged Syrian cities. Several convoys of vehicles from different UN agencies, accompanied by the Syrian Red Crescent, thus arrived on Wednesday evening in Moadamiyeh, Zabadani and Madaya, in the rural area of Damascus, and in Foua and Kafraya, in the rural area of Idlib. .
Residents who survived by eating grass
On site, in Moadamiyeh, the humanitarian team on the ground “saw people with a skinny and haggard appearance and children who seemed too small for their age. In Moadamiyeh, which has been inaccessible for more than a year and a half, civilians have survived by eating grass and the limited quantities of rice, which sells for fifty times higher prices than in Damascus. says the WFP (although located only a few kilometers away).
A humanitarian breakthrough
« This marks a major humanitarian breakthrough in Syria, but it must be remembered that punctual and sporadic convoys can only provide temporary relief to desperate people suffering from hunger. underlines Jacob Kern, the director of the WFP in Syria. " People need food every day. We hope to be able to continue these distributions and continue to bring aid to the most vulnerable people in all regions of the country. »
(NGV)