Food and medicine delivered in besieged and hard to reach areas of Syria

Help has finally arrived for civilians living in five besieged areas in Syria.

On Wednesday, food and medicine were delivered to the areas by about 100 Syrian Arab Red Crescent trucks.

The areas which benefited from the delivery are the Damascus suburb of al-Moaddamyeh, Kafraya, Fouaa , as well as Madaya and al-Zabadani.

The delivery follows a commitment made at a meeting in Munich on February 12 by the US, Russia and other powers, that sustained aid would be delivered to all the people in need throughout the country.

Moneer Shaaban, an executive member of the Damascus Countryside Governate said the aid comes from the efforts of the Syrian government and not from the decision taken at the meeting.

“This is the Syrian government’s planned aid campaign, and has nothing to do with external forces. If the Syrian government refuses to assist, no one else is able to conduct any aid efforts. The Syrian government is like a mother,” said Shaaban.

The Munich meeting also agreed, amongst other things that there would be a ceasefire starting within a week in a country facing the worst humanitarian crisis of modern times.

The ceasefire has been criticized by several diplomats as more promising in theory than it will be in practice.

Yacoub El Hillo, UN humanitarian coordinator in Syria, said he hopes the aid will continue until the siege is lifted.

“We hope such operations and efforts will continue, not only because of the temporary influence of the Munich meeting. Those operations need to be carried out always. The core of our attempts to solve the problem, which has been stated repeatedly, is to lift the siege off all areas,” said El Hillo.

It is estimated that half of Syria’s population (about 11 million people) has been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. At least 250,000 people have been killed in the four-and-a-half year-old conflict.

Since the Munich meeting, at least three hospitals and two schools in northern Syria have been hit in missile strikes, killing scores of people.