A second aid convoy reached the besieged Syrian city of Madaya on Thursday, being stationed on the outskirts and poised to deliver much-needed food and humanitarian supplies, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The city’s 40,000 residents have been living under siege by Syrian government forces and allied militias for months, according to U.N. officials. Before an earlier convoy of aid arrived Monday, bringing many starving residents to tears, Madaya had received no foreign aid since October.
The relief mission is being conducted as part of a U.N.-brokered deal to deliver aid to Madaya, in a mountainous area 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Damascus, and to al-Fouaa and Kefraya — two towns suffering under a rebel blockade in the country’s northwest.
Under the terms of the deal, the aid must be delivered in both regions simultaneously, said Dibeh Fakhr, the ICRC’s Near and Middle East spokeswoman.
The convoy was waiting outside Madaya for word that another one had reached al-Fouaa and Kefraya before it would enter the city and begin distributing its cargo, she said.
A convoy of about 20 trucks to al-Fouaa and Kefraya was taking longer to reach its destination from Damascus, most likely due to the poor state of roads, Fakhr said.
About 20,000 are living under siege in those two towns, she said.
No plans to evacuate the starving
A U.N. source traveling in Thursday’s convoy to Madaya said there were no plans to evacuate from that city the 400 residents whom U.N. officials had said needed treatment urgently. Instead, doctors and nutritionists traveling with the convoy will treat those cases, the source said.
The civil war in Syria is nearing its five-year mark. More than 250,000 Syrians — mostly civilians — have been killed, according to the United Nations. About 10.5 million Syrians have fled their homes — and more than 4 million of those have left the country, playing a large part in Europe’s migrant crisis.