WORLD_ SYRIA_ Syria: dozens die of starvation in Damascus after being 'denied food'

Syria: dozens die of starvation in Damascus after being 'denied food'

Residents cut off from food and water as troops surround districts in capital


By Ruth Sherlock, Gaziantep
6:51PM GMT 13 Jan 2014


Dozens of people in the southern suburbs of Damascus have died of starvation after spending months living on scraps of food, trapped in one of the worst sieges of the civil war, activists claim.

For more than a year, nothing has been allowed in or out of a number of districts in the the sourthern suburbs of Damascus.

It is thought as many as tens of thousands living in Yarmouk Camp, home to settled Palestinian refugees, and Tadamon, have been stopped by the army from leaving and are struggling to get enough food.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that President Bashar al-Assad might finally allow in some humanitarian convoys to parts of Damascus.

“I’m pleased to say that Foreign Minister Lavrov indicated that he’s had some conversations with the regime, that the regime may be prepared to open up a number of areas,” Mr Kerry said.


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“The proof will be in the actions that may or may not be taken in the days ahead.”

For many that may be too little too late. Malnutrition has reached critical levels in recent months and now children and the elderly are dying, local residents have said.

“Today a mother and her three children died after eating food that had gone off. They had nothing else. For weeks children have been dying,” said Susan Ahmed, an activist living in the suburbs of Damascus.

Syrian opposition activists said they have recorded the names of 68 people who have starved to death in recent weeks. While the exact death toll cannot be independently verified, disturbing video footage has been uploaded to the Internet, showing skeletal men, women and children lying on stretchers, too weak to walk.

Britain said yesterday that Royal Navy frigate HMS Montrose is assisting in the international effort to remove chemical stocks from Syria and that it planned to give the US £2.5 million specialist equipment and training to help it destroy the arsenal more quickly.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, also said yesterday that Iran could attend peace talks on Syria next week if it gives a “strong signal” that it will embrace a political transition to replace the current regime.



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