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Syria's Hunger Crisis Goes Beyond Madaya
[HUFFINGTONPOST] Global attention turned to Madaya, Syria earlier this month when images of emaciated residents, including many children, emerged from the besieged Syrian city and caused so much international outcry the Syrian government was forced to let food and medicine through.Everybody say tut tut. Now ask what's for dinner. There. Done. Yet while Madaya made headlines, hundreds of thousands of Syrians elsewhere in the country are deprived of regular access to aid. There are 4.5 million people within Syria in regions that are hard to reach for aid groups, 400,000 of whom live in besieged areas, according to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Human rights groups and activists contend that the Assad regime has used food as a weapon of war since the beginning of the conflict. Through denial of aid shipments and siege tactics, government forces have levied a kind of collective punishment on areas under opposition control. Only 10 percent of requests to send aid convoys to these 4.5 million people are granted, the U.N. says. The United Nations agencies require a degree of coordination with gangs and government forces in order to deliver aid, even though access to humanitarian relief is held as a right under international law. Posted by: Fred 2016-01-17 |
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