Madaya was quiet on Tuesday. Its streets were empty of people or animals, just as they had been for many months. But for the first time since a brutal siege of the town began in July, residents were happy to be inside, where many ate their first full meals since the autumn.
“I wanted you to hear my voice. It’s different mostly because our spirits are high now,” said Ebreham Abbas, one of many Madaya residents to have received food in a much-needed aid delivery on Monday. “They finished unloading the trucks in our area at around 3.30am. Each family got sugar, 10kg of rice, hummus, green beans, two cans of tomato paste, six cans of beans and salt.”
In all, 44 lorries were finally allowed into Madaya, breaking a siege that had led to desperate scenes of starvation and deprivation, and left up to 400 people in need of immediate evacuation, aid organisations said. Some of its residents had died from malnutrition, while others were suffering complications caused by months without proper sustenance.
Negotiations to get seriously ill residents to safety have now started. They would have to leave the same way in which the aid arrived, through regime-held checkpoints. Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, had earlier denied that anyone in Madaya was starving, and said images had been fabricated by television networks. Systematic starvation has been used as a weapon of war throughout the five-year conflict, in parts of Damascus, Homs, northern Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.
Asked about the moment the International Red Cross/World Food Programme convoy arrived, Abbas spoke of “indescribable joy”.
“The kids were going up to the aid workers and asking them if they brought food,” he said. “It was very organised and the food was distributed, but there is a lingering sadness in our hearts because people are wondering if this aid is just a momentary painkiller, if people will forget us again.”
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