UN: Syrian civilians are in danger of starvation

Syrian civilians are in danger of starvation if the regime and opposition factions do not allow the entry of more humanitarian aid to besieged areas, United Nations special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura warned yesterday.

There “are plenty of civilians at the moment in danger of starvation” in Syria, where more than 400,000 are trapped in areas besieged by the government or armed groups across the country,  de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.

The UN estimates that more than four million people are trapped in hard-to-reach areas.

Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council and special adviser to the UN envoy, Jan Egeland said plans to reach a million Syrians with humanitarian assistance were more difficult than expected.

“Of the one million people that we have planned and have tried to reach by land in May, we’ve only so far reached 160,000,” he said.

“Even in areas where we had full approval from the government, there have been infinite problems in actually reaching the places, and in others where we had conditional approvals, like Daraya, we haven’t been able to reach the people at all” Egeland said.

Egeland said the situation is horrendously critical in Daraya and Moadamiyah near Damascus and al-Waer in Homs.

“Children are so malnourished in these places that they will be dying if we’re not able to reach them” he warned.