DAMASCUS: An aid convoy was refused entry to Syria’s Daraya Thursday, the Red Cross said, dashing hopes for the first such delivery since regime forces began a siege of the rebel-held town in 2012.
A truce in Syria’s battleground city Aleppo expired, meanwhile, with no new last-minute prolongation after it had been extended twice through last-minute intervention by Moscow and Washington.
World powers are to meet in Vienna next week to try to push faltering peace talks toward ending a five-year conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.
In the Damascus region, an aid convoy was refused entry to Daraya, which has been besieged by government forces since November 2012.
“We urge the responsible authorities to grant us access to Daraya, so we can return with desperately-needed food & medicines” outside the capital, said the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A five-truck convoy organized by the ICRC, the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had been due to deliver baby milk and medical and school supplies.
“Beyond allowing this initial convoy through, the ICRC and its partners need concerned authorities to let it provide other essentials such as food,” said the ICRC.
A UN spokesman said it had decided not to go ahead with the convoy after “nutrition items” were removed from the convoy.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura and the resident humanitarian coordinator had “decided to abort the mission to Daraya because of the removal of nutrition items for children other than vaccines from the UN convoy at the last checkpoint,” said Stephane Dujarric.
Daraya had a pre-war population of around 80,000 people but that has dropped by almost 90 percent, with remaining residents suffering from severe shortages and malnutrition.
In a video posted by the town’s local council on Facebook on Thursday, residents asked for food and drink.
“We don’t want books or pens. We don’t want just medicine,” said one young woman clutching a baby, her voice breaking.
“We want to eat. We want to drink.”
Another woman asked how residents were expected to take medicine on an empty stomach.
“We can’t take the medicine if we haven’t eaten,” she said.
A truce in Syria’s battleground city Aleppo expired, meanwhile, with no new last-minute prolongation after it had been extended twice through last-minute intervention by Moscow and Washington.
World powers are to meet in Vienna next week to try to push faltering peace talks toward ending a five-year conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people.
In the Damascus region, an aid convoy was refused entry to Daraya, which has been besieged by government forces since November 2012.
“We urge the responsible authorities to grant us access to Daraya, so we can return with desperately-needed food & medicines” outside the capital, said the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A five-truck convoy organized by the ICRC, the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had been due to deliver baby milk and medical and school supplies.
“Beyond allowing this initial convoy through, the ICRC and its partners need concerned authorities to let it provide other essentials such as food,” said the ICRC.
A UN spokesman said it had decided not to go ahead with the convoy after “nutrition items” were removed from the convoy.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura and the resident humanitarian coordinator had “decided to abort the mission to Daraya because of the removal of nutrition items for children other than vaccines from the UN convoy at the last checkpoint,” said Stephane Dujarric.
Daraya had a pre-war population of around 80,000 people but that has dropped by almost 90 percent, with remaining residents suffering from severe shortages and malnutrition.
In a video posted by the town’s local council on Facebook on Thursday, residents asked for food and drink.
“We don’t want books or pens. We don’t want just medicine,” said one young woman clutching a baby, her voice breaking.
“We want to eat. We want to drink.”
Another woman asked how residents were expected to take medicine on an empty stomach.
“We can’t take the medicine if we haven’t eaten,” she said.
