Madaya hospital patients must be evacuated, says UN

The United Nations humanitarian affairs chief has called for the evacuation of about 400 people from Madaya hospital after aid trucks reached the Syrian town which has been cut off for months by fighting.After briefing the UN security council, Stephen O’Brien told reporters the patients needed treatment for medical complications, severe malnourishment and starvation.

This had to be done as soon as possible “or they are in grave peril of losing their lives”, O’Brien said, adding that efforts would be made to get ambulances to Madaya on Tuesday to evacuate the 400, if safe passage could be assured.

Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have enforced a tight siege of Madaya since July, and until now only one aid delivery had been allowed in, in October.

The Syrian government allowed Monday’s delivery of long-awaited food, medicine and other supplies to Madaya after images of emaciated children and adults prompted worldwide condemnation. The delivery was coordinated with similar drops to Fua and Kefraya, two Shia villages that are surrounded by rebels.

The UN security council discussed the situation in Syria at a meeting in New York on Monday called by New Zealand, Spain and France.

“The tactic of siege and starvation is one of the most appalling characteristics of the Syrian conflict,” New Zealand’s UN ambassador, Gerard van Bohemen, told reporters.

The US ambassador, Samantha Power, criticised the “grotesque starve-or-surrender tactics the Syrian regime is using right now against its own people”.