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http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/skeletons-eating-grass-the-horror-gripping-syrian-town-of-madaya/news-story/4c20b314b1405566d7a3ad20c0c2554b Skeletons eating grass’: The horror gripping Syrian town of Madaya
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AFTER eating all the dogs and cats, the skeletal residents of Madaya have reportedy begun making grass soup.
So desperate is the situation in the besieged Syrian town near the capital Damascus, starving townsfolk — some 40,000of them — are braving landmines and snipers to scrounge for food despite a rare ceasefire deal that was meant to allow aid to enter.
“We’ve forgotten what bread tastes like,” 27-year-old Mohamed told AFP from the town near the Lebanese border.
People trapped in Madaya are starving to death, Mohamed and other residents said in interviews, and few have any hope.
“The situation has become very tragic,” he said.
Syria’s government gave permission overnight for UN aid deliveries to three besieged towns, including Madaya, which has been cut off by Syrian government forces who have planted landmines all around it in an ongoing battle with anti-government rebels.
Both Madaya and neighbouring Zabadani are under the control of a loose alliance of opposition forces, including secular rebels and Islamist groups.
They are encircled by regime forces, and last year were part of a deal, along with two rebel-besieged villages in northwestern Syria, to allow aid in and the exit of civilians and the wounded.
But so far Madaya has seen only a one-off aid delivery three months ago, and residents, activists, and aid agencies describe dire conditions in the town now.
“There’s nothing to eat anymore. Nothing but water has entered my mouth for two days,” 32-year-old Momina said.
“We just want someone to tell us if help is coming or not because we have nothing here.” Mohamed said the cost of what food was available was astronomical. “The situation has become very tragic. Very little can be smuggled in, so the prices of food are extremely high,” he said.
“A bag of milk can go for $100, a kilo of rice for $150,” he said.
Al Jazeera reports that residents have eaten all the towns cats and dogs and were now being forced to eat grass to survive.
Adding to the horror — and the death toll — is a winter deep freeze that has blanketed the town in snow.
SURVIVING ON WEEDS
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 10 people have died from lack of food and medicine in the town.
Another 13 have been killed by regime mines or snipers while trying to leave in search of food, the monitoring group said.
It said regime forces had placed additional mines and barbed wire around Madaya since the September deal, adding that some 1,200 people inside had chronic illnesses, and more than 300children there were suffering from malnutrition and other ailments.
“Many of the town’s residents have been forced to survive on weeds and others pay huge sums of money at government checkpoints to obtain food,” Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman said.
“One resident who was really suffering put his car on sale for the price of 10 kilos of rice. He is one of many who did that. He didn’t manage to sell it, and a relative of his died as a result of the food shortages,” he added.
“Young people, women and children have turned into skeletons from hunger. The town needs everything,” said Moaz al-Qalamuni, a journalist in Madaya.
Pawel Krzysiek, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross who entered Madaya during the last aid delivery, also painted a bleak picture.
‘MOTHERS CANNOT LACTATE’
“People for far too long have been left without all the basics, basic food supplies, basic medicines, no electricity and no water ... I really saw the hunger in the people’s eyes,” he told AFP.
“People were begging us for baby milk,” during the aid delivery, he added. “They said the mothers cannot lactate, they are malnourished, they are scared. There is no way to feed newborns and the young babies.” The crisis comes despite a rare deal that was intended to bring relief to Madaya and Zabadani, along with the government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya in Idlib province, which are under rebel siege.
The September deal produced a six-month truce to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of wounded civilians and fighters.
A first aid delivery went ahead, and in December some 450fighters and civilians from Zabadani, Fuaa and Kafraya were evacuated.
“The UN welcomes today’s approval from the government of Syria to access Madaya, Fuaa and Kafraya and is preparing to deliver humanitarian assistance in the coming days,” a UN statement said.
But Krzysiek said “one-off, one shot food deliveries” were not a solution.
“In places like that, that have been left without aid for months, even years, you really need to deliver regularly to makes sure that people have enough to food to feed themselves and their families.”
SOME HOPE
“When the news broke out (of UN aid deliveries) some people fired into the air to celebrate, but most are still waiting to see the food to believe it because they have been disappointed in the past,” Maaz al-Qalamuni told AFP by telephone from Madaya.
Aid deliveries are also expected to reach 20,000people trapped in the Shiite towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, in northwestern Idlib province.
The deliveries are not expected to start for several days due to administrative delays and certainly not before the weekend, which falls on Friday and Saturday in Syria, aid workers in the country said.
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem is expected to discuss the flow of aid during talks with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, who is due Saturday in Damascus on a new mission to organise peace talks between the regime and its opponents.
More than 260,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011 andmillions forced from their homes.