Starvation of Syrian civilians is war crime, UN chief says

Ban Ki-moon says all sides guilty of holding civilians hostage under sieges.

A convoy of aid from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent leaves the capital Damascus for the besieged rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya on January 14, 2016. Louai Beshara / AFP

UNITED NATIONS // UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon warned on Thurday that the use of starvation as a weapon in Syria was a war crime.

“All sides, including the Syrian government, are committing this and other atrocious acts prohibited under international humanitarian law,” Mr Ban said.

Syrians living under siege were “being held hostage”, he said, but added that their plight was even worse than hostages.

“Hostages get fed,” he said. “These children and women and men are struggling to survive without food or medicine.”

Mr Ban’s remarks came as France, Britain and the United States called for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting to press demands for an end to sieges in Syria.

Also on Thursday, a convoy of 44 lorries carrying food and medicine entered the hunger-stricken Syrian town of Madaya.

It was the second delivery of aid this week to the town where the United Nations says suffering is the worst seen in Syria’s nearly five-year war.

Madaya’s 40,000 residents have endured a crippling siege by pro-government forces that has drawn sharp condemnation from the UN and world powers. More than two dozen people have reportedly starved to death since December.

“The priority is wheat flour and washing materials,” said a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Pawel Krzysiek.

Medical teams were aboard the lorries and “the ICRC is also bringing a nutritionist for a proper assessment” of residents, he added.

A separate convoy of 17 lorries left the capital for Fuaa and Kafraya, two towns in Syria’s north-west that are encircled by rebels. The aid was to enter all three places simultaneously.

According to Hizbollah’s Al Manar television station, at least three lorries had also entered Fuaa and Kafraya.

Madaya and the nearby opposition-held town of Zabadani, along with Fuaa and Kafraya, are part of a landmark UN-brokered truce deal between rebels and regime fighters reached in September.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said aid agencies had made several requests to also access Zabadani but had yet to receive authorisation.

“The humanitarian community stands ready to deliver there in the course of the coming days as soon as it is approved,” spokeswoman Linda Tom said.

Thursday’s delivery to Madaya follows one on Monday that was the first humanitarian assistance received by the town in nearly four months.

On Thursday, the ICRC’s top official in Syria, Marianne Gasser, said Madaya’s suffering was “heartbreaking”.

“People are desperate. Food is in extremely short supply. It is the elderly, women and children who are suffering the most, especially from severe malnourishment ... This cannot go on,” she said.

OCHA said a third delivery to the towns would take place “in the following days”.

“We are encouraged that we have been able to reach these towns, where thousands of people have been trapped for very long periods of time,” said the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Yacoub El Hillo.

“We do not want to see this as a one-off,” he said. “Ultimately the real solution to this predicament, to the plight of the people besieged in these towns, is for the siege to be lifted.”

He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) was in direct talks with Syrian authorities to secure the evacuation of Madaya residents in need of urgent medical care.

“We found very urgent cases in Madaya that need to be quickly transferred to hospitals for treatment. We hope that this will happen in the coming days,” Mr El Hillo said.

So far, one eight-year-old girl in need of specialised care had been taken out of Madaya along with her parents, he said. She is receiving treatment in Damascus.

The UN has called for nearly 400 residents of the town who need immediate medical care to be evacuated.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura had said on Wednesday that world powers would push for “immediate action” to deliver aid to besieged areas in Syria, after talks in Geneva with ambassadors from the Security Council’s permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

The Syrian government and the United Nations have championed localised ceasefire deals as a way to end fighting across Syria, where more than 260,000 people have been killed since 2011.

A new round of Syrian peace talks is planned for January 25 in Geneva, but there are fears that a diplomatic row between Iran and Saudi Arabia – who back opposing sides in the war – could derail the process.

* Agence France-Presse