MADAYA , Syria, Jan. 7 (UPI) — Residents of Madaya, Syria, say they are slowly starving to death after a six-month siege by troops loyal to the Syria government.
The town, and the adjoining town of Zabadani, 25 miles from the capital of Damascus, are being punished with deprivation of food, medicine and electricity because of a similar situation hundreds of miles away, where the rebel coalition Jaysh al-Fateh captured the towns of Fua and Kefraya and are denying access of supplies, they said.
The British newspaper The Guardian published reports from Madaya, with a population of about 40,000, indicating families are eating flowers, grass and pets to survive, and rice is sold by the gram because 2.2 pounds, or one kilogram, of rice costs up to $250.
“Whether you are a man, woman, child, whether you’re 70 or 20 years old, you will have lost about 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of your weight. You don’t see a child whose eyes aren’t sunken and staring from hunger,” said Ebeahem Abbass, a defector from the Syrian army.
“People are dying in slow motion,” said Louay, a social worker in Madaya. “we have seen people actually die of hunger.”
The towns are located in mountains at an elevation of 4,200 feet, and the winter cold is worsening the situation.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 23 people died Wednesday in Madaya by mine installations surrounding the town, placed there by Syrian troops, and that at least 300 children are suffering from malnutrition.
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