Baladi News
With the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, half a million Syrian people are living in poverty and misery as a result of the continued blockade imposed by Assad’s regime forces as well as its supporting militias.
According to data that Anadolu Agency reporter compiled from local sources, the number of the besieged totaled 535 thousand, which are distributed as follows: 50 thousand in Madaya, 325 thousand in Eastern Ghouta, 40 thousand in Muadamiyat al-Sham and Darayya, and 60 thousand in Yarmouk Camp and Al-Hajar al-Aswad in Damascus governorate, 15 thousand in al-Waer neighborhood in Homs, 20 thousand in the center of Deir al-Zour, and 25 thousand in Al-Fu'ah and Kafraya. Most of these areas are blockaded by the regime forces and Hezbollah, except for Deir al-Zour city central, which is surrounded by the Islamic State, and Al-Fu'ah and Kafraya, which are surrounded by rebel forces that allow the entry of aid unlike the regime blockaded areas.
However, other 500 thousands could be added due to partial blockade imposed by the Syrian regime and its supporting Kurdish militias that blocked Castello road, the only remaining life vein of Aleppo city liberated districts, which could raise the number of the besieged to 1 million.
United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, stated on 19 May: ”If no progress has been achieved regarding the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged areas in Syria, we would resort to airdrops as an ultimate solution”. In response to this statement, Assad’s regime approved the entry of relief convoys by the United Nations and the Red Crescent to at least 11 out of 19 besieged areas this June. The list did not include Darayya and Duma, but the regime approved adding them to a list of 8 areas that would receive medical aid, stationaries, and baby milk.
Last Wednesday, activist Mohammed Nour from Muadamiyat al-Sham, indicated that the United Nations failed to enter food aid to Darayya which is subject to heavy shelling by the regime forces, indicating that what the city received are merely “some medical materials, diapers, shampoo and mosquito nets”
However, U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said that there is “clear evidence” that an aid convoy will be heading to Darayya within days.
Diplomats attending a closed-door meeting of the Security Council on Friday said that Stephen O'Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Council that the United Nations would ask the Syrian government on Sunday to approve the process of transferring humanitarian aid by air and dropping it on the besieged areas.
Matthew Rycroft, the UK's ambassador to the UN "Airdrops are complex, costly, risky, but we have now all agreed that they are the last resort and we must use them to relieve the human suffering in so many besieged areas in Syria,"