begin quote from:
After Years of Siege, First Food Aid Reaches Syria's Daraya
| Wall Street Journal | - |
The delivery came more than a week after the first aid convoy reached Daraya since the Syrian regime laid siege to it in late 2012.
- 35
After Years of Siege, First Food Aid Reaches Syria’s Daraya
The Red Crescent and the United Nations deliver food aid to the rebel-held Damascus suburb
ENLARGE
A local opposition
group in Daraya provided this photo to the Associated Press showing
Syrians unloading food and other supplies from a truck that entered the
rebel-held Damascus suburb of Daraya overnight.
Photo:
Associated Press
The delivery came more than a week after the first aid convoy reached Daraya since the Syrian regime laid siege to it in late 2012. But that delivery contained no flour, cooking oil or other food staples for a town whose residents have been surviving off vegetation and dwindling resources. Instead, only items such as lice shampoo, mosquito nets, baby formula and vaccines were sent.
The latest convoy, consisting of nine trucks and carrying 480 food parcels for 2,400 people, entered the town late Thursday. The delivery included hygiene products as well as flour, according to the United Nations’ World Food Program, one of several agencies that delivered the aid.
“The supply of the very basic commodities is very challenging. So as a consequence, the price of the good commodities themselves are very high when they are available,” said Bernard Mrewa, a WFP official who accompanied the Daraya convoy.
ENLARGE
Nine trucks carrying
food aid including dry goods and flour, nonfood aid and medical aid were
unloaded in Daraya, enough supplies to help for one month, according to
the operations director at the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
Photo:
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The shipment of aid to Daraya occurred hours after the U.N. said the Syrian regime had approved aid deliveries this month to 15 of the 19 areas of the country designated as besieged, most of them by government forces. Under current arrangements, any delivery of humanitarian supplies by international aid agencies to these areas must be approved by the Syrian government.
Approval, however, doesn't guarantee delivery, Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. Syria envoy, cautioned Thursday.
Though residents of Daraya welcomed the overnight arrival of food supplies, they said there was too little.
“The amount wasn't enough,” said Shadi Matar, a resident and member of the local opposition council in Daraya. “The regime isn’t showing mercy. It isn’t giving Daraya and its people anything for free.”
More
- U.N. Will Request Syrian Permission for Aid Airdrops (June 3, 2016)
- A Besieged Syrian Town Goes Wanting Another Day (June 3, 2016)
- U.N. Calls Off Aid Mission to Syrian Town (May 12)
During a news conference in Geneva on Thursday, Mr. de Mistura said countries involved in humanitarian relief efforts have complained that aid deliveries are often followed by punitive government measures.
Early Friday, as soon as aid trucks left Daraya, it was hit by dozens of mortars and barrel bombs, residents said.
—Dana Ballout and Raja Abdulrahim in Beirut contributed to this article.
