Omar Al-Hasan, Baladi News, Deir Al-Zor
United Nations World Food Program (WFP), announced that it air dropped 26 packages including 20 tons of food supplies to thousands of civilians besieged by ISIS in the Syrian city of Deir Al-Zor on Sunday.
WFP explained that the dropping process carried out by a chartered plane which took off from the Jordanian capital, is an effort to alleviate the suffering of the people besieged for two years. The process took place in a remote area that was agreed upon with the Syrian Red Crescent and was not revealed till implementation.
The dropping process took place near the Faculty of Arts which is close to the gathering area of Assad's forces in "Al-Assad" hospital and Al-Jabal region west of Deir Al-Zor, according to local sources.
Activists from Deir Al-Zor said to Baladi news that the regime confiscated large parts of the aid and expressed their fear that the regime could steal and distribute them to the families of its thugs, or even sell them at high prices in the besieged city market.
Red Crescent said that it has received only 22 packages which equals 865 food portions containing mainly rice, beans, and chickpeas, and that they are working to know what happened to the other packages.
WFP said that air drop was their last solution due to the impossibility of delivering the aid by land, pointing out that this is the first time they manage to deliver aid for about 200 thousands civilian besieged in the city since March 2014, and expressing their willingness to drop more aid in the upcoming days.
WFP had carried out a similar air drop to deliver food aid to Deir Al-Zor at the 24th of February 2016, but it failed because some packages landed away from its supposed landing areas or due to the failure of parachutes which resulted in the damage of most food supplies.
It's noteworthy here that ISIS and Assad's regime have been tightening their grip on the city for almost a year, as ISIS prevents the entry and exit of food supplies to the regime-held areas, while Assad's officers are trading the food aid delivered to the city through its airbase, restricting their distribution to the families of thugs and regime forces inside the besieged neighborhoods to guarantee their loyalty.
