What hope is there for Syria’s besieged?
After years of siege, Daraya residents get food aid, but attacks on Damascus suburb means relief could be short-lived.
For nearly four years, Syrians in the town of Daraya have lived under siege, with limited access to food and medicine, at the hands of their government.
On Friday, they received their first food-aid delivery since 2012. But then came the barrel bombs, dropped by Syrian government helicopters.
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Residents say the bombardment prevented the food aid from getting to people who needed it.
Friday’s aid delivery came after weeks of negotiations and international pressure on the government – and Daraya is just one of several Syrian towns currently under siege.
The UN estimates that more than 500,000 Syrians are affected but some groups, such as the Siege Watch Project, put that figure at more than one million.
With the government agreeing to let aid into more besieged areas, is a new chapter being opened in aid delivery? And how are sieges being used by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in this conflict?
Presenter: Sami Zeidan
Guests:
Neil Sammonds – Syria Researcher at Amnesty International
Abeer Etefa – senior spokeswoman for the Middle East at the World Food Programme
Marwan Kabalan – Syrian academic and writer
Published On 11 Jun 2016