Harrowing accounts of life under siege in Syria
New testimony from residents living inside besieged Syrian villages gathered by Amnesty International, describing their desperate struggle to feed themselves through the winter months, highlights the crucial need to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to all civilians in need and lift all
sieges on civilian populations across country.
The organization has spoken to residents in the besieged town of Medaya in the Damascus Countryside governorate, and gathered fresh accounts of conditions in al-Fouaa and Kefraya in the Idleb Countryside governorate. The starving residents described how families are surviving on little
more that foraged leaves and boiled water. The villages are due to resume receiving aid following a deal involving the Syrian government, struck on 7 January 2016.
"These harrowing accounts of hunger represent the mere tip of an iceberg. Syrians are suffering and dying across the country because starvation is being used as a weapon of war by both the Syrian government and armed groups. By continuing to impose sieges on civilian areas and
only sporadically allowing in aid at their whim they are fuelling a humanitarian crisis and toying with the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
"Using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. All parties laying siege to civilian areas - the government and non-state armed groups - must stop impeding relief supplies and allow immediate unfettered access for humanitarian aid."
The UN estimates that some 400,000 people are surviving without access to life-saving aid in 15 besieged locations across Syria.
The UN Security Council adopted two resolutions calling on all parties to the conflict to lift all sieges and grant humanitarian access. So far, all parties have failed to comply with these resolutions to alleviate the suffering of civilians in Syria.