The Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the United Nations have delivered food aid to the Damascus suburb of Daraya for the first time since it came under siege in 2012, Wall Street Journal reported, hours after the UN said the Syrian government had approved access to 15 of the 19 besieged areas within Syria.
The rebel-held suburb of Daraya, just southwest of the Syrian capital, has been under siege since November 2012 and has witnessed some of the worst bombardment during the country’s civil war, now in its sixth year.
The delivery of food supplies late on Thursday night came a week after a joint convoy of the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and SARC reached Daraya and delivered medicines, vaccines, baby formula, and “nutritional items for children”— but no food.
The UN estimates that there are currently 592,700 people living under siege in Syria, with the vast majority of them—some 452,700 people—besieged by government forces.
Lifting the siege on rebel-held areas was a key demand by the opposition during indirect peace talks held in Geneva earlier this year.
SARC said the food delivery was coordinated with the United Nations in the Syrian capital. It said food, flour and medical supplies were delivered.
An official with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said in a video posted online by media activists in Daraya that WFP is delivering assistance to the suburb for the first time since 2012. He said that WFP had delivered about 480 food rations that would feed about 2,400 individuals for one month.
The WFP official said he had met with some beneficiaries of the food aid and community leaders.
“The supply of the very basic commodities is very challenging, so as a consequence the prices of the commodities themselves are very high whenever they are available,” he said.
“As a result most families are having to do with one meal, which is not complete as a meal, per day in order to be able to get by,” he said.