Baladi News – Rima Mohammed
Although passed by the United Nations, the act of airdrops to blockaded areas in Syria has not been put into action yet, except for the strategic areas for Assad’s regime.
The airdrops should supposedly be achieved using UN aircrafts dedicated for this purpose and cover areas where citizens are starving such as Darayya, Madaya, al-Zabadani, and Muadamiyat al-Sham in Damascus countryside and al-Waer in Homs. However, what is happening on the ground is that Russian warplanes are dropping UN “humanitarian aid” shipments to the besieged in Deir al-Zour for the third time, and the airdrops are deliberately discharged near the centers and barricades of the Syrian regime and its supporting militias.
Baladi News obtained information that a Russian warplane dropped parachutes of 26 foodstuff shipments, each of which is loaded on three parachutes, to al-Maqaber area (on Deir al-Zour- Damascus road), which is under the control of the Syrian regime.
The reliefs, which were dropped on Sunday at about 6:05 AM, are reportedly “provided by the UN World Food Programme as aid for the citizens of besieged areas in Deir al-Zour.”
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) is assumed to receive and distribute the reliefs to the citizens, but “the regime forces seized and held a major part of them, arguing that they would be allocated for soldiers fighting terrorists” as we were informed.
Activists inside the city expect that the reliefs would be sold as previously by Assad’s militias to citizens at doubled prices rather than delivering them to them for free as planned by the UN.
SARC has not issued any statements regarding the agreed method of dropping or receiving and distributing the reliefs.
It is noteworthy that the aircrafts dedicated for airdropping humanitarian aid specify the goals very accurately, which raises doubt about the possibility that there was an error that resulted in receiving the reliefs by the regime forces.
It is noteworthy that this is not the first time airdrops are seized and sold to citizens by the Assad’s army in Deir al-Zour.