Syrians eating grass to survive

A Syrian activist, Mazen Burhan, said on Sunday in Madaya (Syria), that residents have been reduced to eating grass and leaves in order to survive.


He said the situation has worsened with winter snowfalls.

Burhan reiterated that the situation was hopeless as people were also helpless and dying of famine in large numbers.

“We are waiting but people are dying and the more time, the more tragedies.’’

Madaya is one of the last rebel-held areas between Damascus and the Lebanese border.



Doctors without Borders said the besieged Syrian town of Madaya needed constant supply of aid, not just a single delivery.

The medical charity warned that as aid agencies waited to gain access to the rebel-held area, which had been besieged by government forces since July, residents were suffering from continuing starvation and shortages of medical supplies.

Tammam Aloudat, the organisation’s Deputy Medical Director, said there were 150 people severely ill, 10 of them in critical condition, in a local hospital supported by the organisation.

“A consistent supply of aid is needed, a single aid drop will not solve the problem.

“Twenty three people have died of starvation in the Madaya hospital since the beginning of December and 10 more will die if there is no medical treatment shortly,” he said.

Aloudat said it would also be necessary to evacuate people from Madaya, where the hospital was treating people wounded by gunfire and landmines as they tried to escape the town.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has expressed the hope to deliver aid to Madaya and to two government-held villages besieged by rebels in northern Syria on Monday.punch