4.6 million Syrians remain besieged as UN-sponsored talks get under way

4.6 million Syrians remain besieged as UN-sponsored talks get under way

There are an estimated 4.6 million people besieged in 18 areas in Syria where humanitarian aid cannot reach, Bettina Luescher, for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said speaking to reporters at the regular bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva earlier on Saturday, Newsday reported.

"WFP is appealing that all humanitarian actors be given access to those areas so that they can deliver life-saving aid," Luescher said.

As for the situation in Madaya "the most widely known of Syria’s besieged towns, coming to the world’s attention after reports of people dying of starvation or being killed trying to flee," she said that there was nothing new to report as far as humanitarian access to the more than 40,000 people remaining there.

"It is a very complicated and bureaucratic process, and only a very small number of permissions have been given access to besieged areas, where tens of thousands of families are still waiting for aid," said Luescher, adding that "this is why putting an end to the fighting is paramount. WFP is talking to all sides, but an agreement has to be made on the ground."

She went on to stress that it is also important to think of all the places which might not be in the headlines today, where men, women and children are desperate and in need of urgent help.

Big News Network added, air-dropping supplies is a “very hard thing to pull off,” she said, “requiring a safe airspace as well as a secured area on the ground, where large packages could land safely. There also has to be people on the ground to distribute those goods. That is not possible under the current situation. Trucks are the safest way to deliver aid at the moment.”

Sixteen more people have died of starvation in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya since an aid convoy entered earlier this month, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Several dozen more residents of the town are in "danger of death" because of severe malnutrition, the humanitarian group warned.

The latest deaths bring the number of people reported to have died of starvation in Madaya to 46 since December, according to MSF, Digital Journal reported.

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