Syria: 250,000 scared, starving children living under siege

[Anthea]

Independent
The 250,000 scared, starving and under siege forgotten children of Syria
Syria civil war: Dying children 'being forced to eat animal feed'

A quarter of a million children are at risk of starvation in “open-air prisons” in besieged Syria despite the truce, Save the Children has said, as peace talks scheduled to resume on Wednesday looked shaky.

Some 486,700 people in 18 different areas across Syria are under siege by either government or opposition forces, according to the UN, with no movement of food, medicines or fuel in or out. Some aid agencies say the true number may be up to 1.9 million.

There were hopes that the current cessation of hostilities, which came into force on 27 February, would be a turning point, enabling aid organisations to access besieged areas. A handful of aid convoys have since reached 150,000 people, but charities and residents say deliveries have been patchy.

“Aid has reached some areas, but deliveries are piecemeal and inconsistent,” Save the Children’s CEO, Tanya Steele, said. “To have children going hungry and sick just a short drive from warehouses of food is appalling and it’s time we ended this shameful situation.”

Access is granted to each convoy individually, and they are only able to take enough supplies to last a few weeks, with no guarantee of when the next delivery will be made.

In a report released on Wednesday, a third of 126 residents interviewed by Save the Children say they often go without a single meal a day, and a quarter have seen children in their towns dying because of lack of food. The report paints a stark picture of the cruelties of living under siege – in Moadamiyeh, just a few miles from the capital Damascus, three newborn babies died after medical staff ran out of IV bags.

“A relative’s infant son died from malnutrition because of the lack of formula and food for children,” Um Tarek, a mother in the village of Misraba, in the suburbs of Damascus, told Save the Children. “His mother wasn’t able to breastfeed him because she was in such poor health.”

Abdul Wahab Ahmed, a civil society activist in Madaya, which has been under government siege since July, told The Independent that more than 300 children in the town were currently suffering symptoms of severe malnutrition. Images on Twitter showed children and infants with distended stomachs.

An eight-year-old boy died from lack of food on 27 February – the day the truce officially took hold – Mr Ahmed added. He said the two aid deliveries that had been made had been vital, but insufficient. Before the latest delivery, a kilogram of rice in the city was selling for $230 (£160). Aid agencies say that unless there is a more permanent end to the violence in Syria – soon to enter its sixth year – there is little hope of seeing an end to the use of siege as a tactic by both sides.

Official peace talks were scheduled to begin on Wednesday, but the High Negotiations Committee, the umbrella body of the mainstream Syrian opposition, has still not confirmed whether it would attend. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura was adamant that initial talks would take place, saying he would be holding “substantive” talks between government and the opposition by next Monday.

The pause in fighting has given many Syrians a brief respite from the relentless violence, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that fighting had killed over 40 civilians in the past two days, more than in the previous eight days of the truce combined. Meanwhile three rockets fired from Syria landed on the Turkish border city of Kilis, killing a four-year-old boy and one other person. Turkey responded by firing at Isis targets in Syria.

Initial peace talks planned by Mr de Mistura collapsed in early February, after the start of a Russian-backed government offensive on Aleppo. There are now fears the city may soon face siege tactics like those seen across the rest of Syria. “We are extremely concerned about the situation in Aleppo,” said Ashley Proud, of Mercy Corps. “There are around 300,000 people there at risk of becoming trapped… They have limited options for flight.”

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[Anthea]

The 250,000 scared, starving and under siege forgotten children of Syria

After 5 years of suffering there is no end to the torment of a quarter of a million frightened children

Cowering from snipers, scavenging for scraps and shivering in the ruins of their besieged communities – they are the abandoned children of Syria.

Horrific new evidence suggests more than 250,000 youngsters are under deadly siege as the country’s bloody civil war reaches its fifth anniversary next week.

Most are surrounded by President Assad’s brutal ground forces, with artillery positions circling near-ghost towns that have been barrel-bombed up to 40 times a day, and sniper teams picking off anyone making a run for it through the ring of steel.

Others are penned in by Islamic State thugs armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Forced to eat grass and animal feed to survive, many have never tasted fruit or chicken, or eaten a vegetable in months.

Bomb smoke has given them deadly infections, and drinking from puddles after troops cut water supplies has led to widespread skin and stomach diseases.

Many youngsters said they “now wait for their turn to be killed”, said the heartbreaking Save the Children report ahead of the March 15 anniversary of the conflict.

Children under 14 accounted for nearly half the 560 deaths in besieged areas investigated by the charity.

They died from being poisoned while living on scavenged food, lack of
emergency medical attention, chronic malnutrition and dehydration – as well as bombings and shootings.

Medical supplies are so scarce that people scavenge for cloth to boil for bandages and doctors are forced to use old water hoses as ventilation tubes.

Please click on image below to enlarge it:



Besieged communities are described as “death camps” in the report, which tells of a nation destroyed by war. And despite repeated UN resolutions calling for humanitarian access, families are still not getting vital help.

Desperately needed food and medicine sits in aid warehouses but cannot reach even those just a few miles away as ruthless sieges make it almost impossible to secure free movement for supply convoys.

Save the Children chief executive Tanya Steele called for an end to the sieges.

She said: “Children are dying from lack of food and medicine just a few miles from warehouses piled high with aid.

“Families spoke of sick babies dying at checkpoints, vets treating humans and children forced to eat animal feed as they cower in basements from air strikes.”

Electricity blackouts mean medics have to operate by candlelight. Babies
are dying at checkpoints because of delays in reaching medical care.

Malnutrition is widespread and children “wander around in a daze from hunger”.

Families are trapped, surrounded by snipers, and women die in childbirth as doctors lack basic medical equipment.

More than 125 adults and children in eight besieged areas were interviewed by Save the Children as world leaders and warring parties prepare for peace talks.

It found less than 1% of Syrians in besieged areas received UN food aid in 2015 and only around 3% received health assistance. While more aid is being sent to besieged communities since the ceasefire brokered last month, the charity warned that so far “only a tiny fraction of what is needed” is getting in.

Vital medicine, fuel and high-nutrition food is still not being allowed on to convoys while many of the sick remain stranded.

The charity accused the international community of “failure” in Syria, and demanded that factions immediately lift their sieges and ensure safe passage for humanitarian agencies to deliver aid.

It called for the free movement of civilians and for all parties to stop attacks on schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure.

Aid should not be used as “a bargaining chip for political negotiations” or linked into ceasefire discussions, it said.

The report added: “At least a quarter of a million children are living under brutal siege in areas of Syria that have effectively been turned into open-air prisons.

“They and their families are cut off from the outside world, surrounded by warring groups that illegally use siege against civilians as a weapon of war, preventing food, medicine, fuel and other vital supplies from entering and stopping people from fleeing.”

Underlining the devastating cost of the conflict, it added: “Amid the spiralling atrocities in Syria, these children are among the most vulnerable.”

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