Mayar Haidar, Baladi News, Damascus Countryside
A formal UN delegation entered the town of "Darayya" in the western part of Damascus (Ghouta) after four years of subsequent absence, in which the town had been subjected to violent clashes with the Syrian regime which destroyed its residential neighborhoods. This is considered the first visit of a UN delegation after the regime had maintained an intransigent attitude preventing them many times from entering the town over the past years.
The Revolutionary Council of Darayya confirmed that the delegation headed by Ms. Khawla Mattar, the representative of the international envoy "De Mistura", did not bring any humanitarian aid and their visit aimed at observing the humane situation in the besieged city since November 2012.
Mrs. Mattar had met dignitaries from the town and will meet with the representative bodies of the city aiming at reporting the full situation of the town and the basic needs of civilians to the UN delegation in the light of the suffocating conditions of the siege, according to a private source from the Council.
Regime forces separated the towns of Darayya and Muadamiyat al-Sham from each other, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in both of them and increasing the difficulty of living conditions through tightening the siege.
People of Darayya staged sit-ins and held banners describing their tough situation calling on the international community to lift the siege and stop the bombing to avoid a humanitarian disaster .