Deal struck for aid to reach famine-hit Syrian cities

A deal has been struck for food and medicine to be sent to besieged towns in Syria where tens of thousands of people are in danger of starving to death, aid agencies said.

The aid deal agrees on Saturday will result in humanitarian supplies being sent to the opposition-held town of Madaya at the Lebanese border, and to villages in the northwestern province of Idlib that are blockaded by rebels.

Aid agencies have warned of widespread starvation in Madaya, where some 40,000 people are at risk. The UN said on Thursday that Damascus had agreed to allow access to all three areas, but did not say when the delivery would take place.

"Both date and time have been set. Aid will go to three towns on Monday morning, all at the same time," said a source familiar with the matter. A second, pro-Syrian government source confirmed the details.

International rights group Amnesty International published accounts of people trying to survive on boiled water and leaves. Images of emaciated bodies and hungry children have led to an international outcry over the use of siege tactics by all sides in the war.

Even more chilling is the idea that the besieged city is not the exception, rather there is evidence of an unfolding famine in all of Syria.

“These harrowing accounts of hunger represent the tip of an iceberg," said Philip Luther, the Middle East and North Africa director for Amnesty International. "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.”

Luther accused both sides of “toying with the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,” and noted that starving civilians as a tactic in warfare is a war crime.

News of the agreement came on Saturday as 43 people were killed and at least 150 others injured in Russian air strikes in Syria's Idlib province, some 290 km north of the capital.

In another attack in Idlib province, the Syria Civil Defence said at least three people were killed and four others were injured in air strikes that targeted a school and a fire department in Ariha.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 39, adding that the air strikes targeted a court and a prison in Maarat al-Numaan.