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Aid Convoy in Syria Delivers Food to Rebel-Held Area Besieged Syrian Town Gets First Food Aid Since 2012, Then Gets Bombed
(about 4 hours later)
GENEVA — An international aid convoy has delivered food supplies to the rebel-held town of Daraya in Syria for the first time since 2012, when the town came under siege by government forces, the United Nations said on Friday. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Relief trucks finally delivered food aid for the first time in four years to Daraya, the rebel-held Syrian town just outside of Damascus that has come to symbolize the suffering of civilians trapped by the war, the United Nations said on Friday.
Trucks from the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent brought enough food to feed 2,400 people for a month, according to Jens Laerke, a spokesman of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. But even as the relief convoy’s success was announced by the World Food Program, the United Nations anti-hunger agency, residents of Daraya were reporting that Syrian military aircraft were bombing the town, making it difficult to distribute the food. They also said the amount delivered was roughly half of what was needed.
Any sense of relief, however, was tempered by concerns that the supplies would only last a month and that the United Nations had underestimated the number of people in the town, the local council and a monitoring group reported. “People didn’t come in large numbers to receive the convoy, they were afraid of the bombing,” said Amjad Abbar, a member of a local council in Daraya, said by telephone, where sounds of explosions and aircraft could be heard in the background. “Several barrel bombs have fallen,” he said.
The operation began late on Thursday and lasted several hours, Mr. Laerke said. “They managed to get through all the checkpoints to get in there, deliver overnight, stock what needed to be stocked and provide food for the first time in years to people inside Daraya,” he said at a news briefing. The Daraya food delivery, a joint operation of the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent that had been repeatedly delayed, illustrated the multiple frustrations confronting relief providers in the Syrian conflict.
Malnutrition has been reported in the rebel-held town, which is about seven miles from Damascus. A convoy carrying nonfood supplies — including wheelchairs, infant formula, vaccines, mosquito nets and anti-lice shampoo — was allowed to enter on June 1. While President Bashar al-Assad has pledged under international pressure, including from his Russian allies, to allow aid into areas beyond those controlled by the government, he has created what critics describe as a bureaucratic tangle of obstacles that has effectively stalled many deliveries.
The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said President Bashar al-Assad’s government had approved the arrival of United Nations land convoys at 15 of 17 government-besieged areas in June. Mr. Assad also has not stopped attacks on rebel-held areas, creating security risks for aid providers. And in a new sign of Mr. Assad’s apparent unwillingness to negotiate an end to the war, he vowed this week to recapture “every inch” of Syria lost to his array of enemies over the past five years.
Airdrops remain an option if the land convoys are unable to reach the affected areas, the envoy said. The United Nations has been pressing the Syrian government for unfettered access to 19 besieged areas controlled by insurgents, where hundreds of thousands of people have little or no access to food and medicine.
Mr. Laerke called on Friday for “unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access” for all people in need, “in particular, besieged and hard-to-reach areas where we have still about 4.6 million people living under these conditions in Syria.” With the Daraya delivery, as well as a Friday delivery to Douma, another rebel-held town, the World Food Program said it had now provided assistance to more than 1.4 million vulnerable people across Syria in the first few days of June. But that is far from its goal to reach 4 million people.
The convoy for Daraya also includes nearly two tons of medicine for chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes, antibiotics, vitamins and other health and hygiene items, officials said. It also remains unclear whether the government will allow further deliveries to areas that already have received one or two shipments.
The government, however, declined to approve the delivery of three burn kits that would have been enough to treat about 30 people, said another spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic. The World Food Program said in a statement that the Daraya convoy included food baskets with enough staples — rice, lentils, chickpeas, beans, bulgur, oil, salt and sugar — to feed 2,400 people for a month. The convoy also delivered enough bags of flour to feed 4,000 for a month.
There was also anger and frustration at the amount of food aid, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in Britain that tracks the war using sources on the ground. The operation began late on Thursday and lasted until 3 a.m. Friday, when the convoy departed, United Nations officials said.
It cited the Daraya local council as saying the supplies brought in would not last two weeks. The council said the population of Daraya was greater than 8,000, more than double the United Nation estimates. “Incredible feat!” Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, wrote on Twitter. “Finally food + other supplies to ppl under siege in #Daraya. We’re v proud of our field colleagues.”
A council spokesman, Hossam Ayyash, said it was unclear how the aid would be distributed. While Mr. Abbar welcomed the supplies, he said that there were 8,000 people living in Daraya, so it will be necessary to divide up the supplies when it is safe to retrieve them. “The food baskets won’t cover the whole number,” he said. “Every person won’t get one whole basket.”
“Of course we are grateful to the team that brought in the supplies, but unfortunately they are not sufficient,” Mr. Ayyash said. “We don’t know what decision will be taken, but it won’t be able to be shared out among everyone who’s here.”
On Friday, government helicopters stepped up their barrel bombing of Daraya, the Observatory and local council said.
Daraya was reported to have been shelled last month after an aid convoy was turned away despite an agreement for it to enter.