Spirits high in Madaya as convoy of food arrives

Madaya was quiet on Tuesday. Its streets were empty of people or animals, just as they had been for many months. But for the first time since a brutal siege of the western Syrian town began in July, residents were happy to be inside, where many ate their first full meals since the autumn.

“I wanted you to hear my voice. It’s different mostly because our spirits are high now,” said Ebreham Abbas, one of many Madaya residents to have received food in a much-needed aid delivery on Monday.

“They finished unloading the trucks in our area at around 3.30am. Each family got sugar, 10kg of rice, hummus, green beans, two cans of tomato paste, six cans of beans and salt.”

In all, 44 lorries were finally allowed in to Madaya, breaking a siege that had led to desperate scenes of starvation and deprivation, and left up to 400 people in need of immediate evacuation, aid organisations said. Some of its residents had died from malnutrition, while others were suffering complications caused by months without proper sustenance.

Systematic starvation

Negotiations to get seriously ill residents to safety have now started. They would have to leave the same way in which the aid arrived, through regime-held checkpoints. Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, had earlier denied that anyone in Madaya was starving, and said images had been fabricated by television networks.

Systematic starvation has been used as a weapon of war throughout the five-year conflict, in parts of Damascus, Homs, northern Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.

Asked about the moment the International Red Cross convoy arrived, Abbas spoke of “indescribable joy”. “The kids were going up to the aid workers and asking them if they brought food,” he said.

“It was very organised and the food was distributed, but there is a lingering sadness in our hearts because people are wondering if this aid is just a momentary painkiller, if people will forget us again.”

‘Everybody is cooking’

He said there was no organised armed presence in Madaya, which is about 40 miles northwest of the Syrian capital Damascus, and has been accused by the regime of harbouring “terrorists”, a catch-all word it uses for any of the armed groups opposing it.

“Today there is very little movement in the streets because everybody is cooking,” said Abbas. “Everyone in Madaya today will eat green beans and rice. People are even making tea and putting sugar in it. We haven’t done that in a long time.”

“We decided we would eat today until we were full. It was our first proper breakfast in three or four months. We ate and everyone was full, and then we had tea . . . It was like the good old days.”

Aid organisations said enough food was delivered to Madaya to last about a month. “One convoy will not solve the problem,” said Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

A 21-lorry convoy was also sent to two villages north of Aleppo, Fua and Kefraya, which have been besieged and bombed by opposition groups. – (Guardian service)