Children and skeletal old men drinking soup made from leaves and grass. A kilo of rice costing more than $100. People said to be dying from starvation. The accounts could be of a World War II death camp, but they are not. This is Syria in 2016.
The graphic images of death and starvation coming out of the besieged Syrian town of Madaya have not been independently confirmed by aid groups. However the United Nations on Thursday said it has received “credible reports” of people dying of starvation and that the Syrian government had agreed to allow aid convoys into the besieged cities of Madaya, Foah and Kefraya
There are conflicting reports of how many people have died. The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres puts the number at 23 since December 1. One activist says it could be as high as 41. The U.N. statement Thursday provided only one confirmed death, that of a 53-year-old man on Tuesday whose “family of five continues to suffer from severe malnutrition.”
The U.N. World Food Programme, or WFP, was preparing to deliver humanitarian aid in the coming days, it added. A convoy, a partnership between the WFP, the International Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, would have enough aid to sustain 40,000 people for one month, according to spokeswoman Abeer Etefa.
Madaya, a town of 40,000 people northwest of the capital Damascus has been under siege since July, cut off by forces of both the Syrian government and Hezbollah, its Lebanese ally. Madaya is also peppered with landmines, thwarting aid efforts
“People are living off nothing,” Etefa told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. “This is an area that’s completely besieged and surrounded by mountains covered in snow, so the little food that gets in is through tunnels and is extremely expensive.”
Many of those posting Twitter and Facebook messages beg the world for help, saying they have no access to food, water or electricity for days at a time.
In one, a man speaks to the camera, but before long he breaks down. “What did we do? What did we do?” he cries. “My children, they’re dying. Bring guns, bring angels, but God, help us,” he wails.
This video is one of dozens posted online by activists and residents in Madaya. All say they are being starved to death.
In one video, a child says he hasn’t eaten for seven days and wants to eat meat. In another, a mother says her daughter has not had milk for a month. Again, neither video can be independently verified.
Children eat soup made from leaves and water, one activist, Sham Abdullah, He says 41 people have died so far from starvation; other activists and residents have posted images of bodies on Twitter.
In another video, an old woman stirs a pot of green boiling water. The man filming her asks in Arabic: “Hajji, what are you cooking?”
“Grass for the old man,” she replies.
Food is available, but few can afford it.
A kilo of sugar costs about $200, he says, while a similar amount of flour or rice is $120. In another tweet, there are claims milk costs $300 per liter.
“Who has that money to feed their families?” Almaleh asks. Just as others have claimed, he says parents feed stray cats and dogs to their children to keep them alive. When they can’t find animals, salt and water must suffice.
Dibeh Fakhr, an ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva, says her colleagues who worked on the last aid drop, a joint operation with the United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent, “saw hunger in the eyes of people.”
“I can tell you that the situation is extremely critical. We are very concerned by all the information and images we are seeing,” Fakhr says. She adds, however: “At this stage we cannot confirm reports that people are dying of starvation as we are not in Madaya.”