AID CONVOY SETS OFF AS TOWN FACES STARVATION

BEIRUT A convoy carrying desperately needed food aid to a besieged Syrian town set off Monday as part of a UN-backed agreement to bring relief to people believed to be facing starvation.

Several dozen vehicles bringing food and medical supplies left the Syrian capital, Damascus, for Madaya, a town near the Lebanese border cut off by Syrian forces.

“We have close to 50 trucks and we are heading to Madaya now,” said Pawel Krzysiek, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, who was travelling with the convoy.

There were risks that fighting or checkpoints could block the trucks. But Krzysiek expressed confidence that the aid supplies would reach the tens of thousands of people in the town.

Since July, Madaya residents have faced a punishing blockade by Syrian government forces and allied fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah militia. Images on social media purport to show emaciated residents eating grass and household pets.

Aid groups say about two dozen people, including children, have died from starvation in Madaya, a pro-rebellion town about 25 kilometres west of Damascus, but a longer journey by road.

The Britain-based branch of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said five people in Madaya, including a nine- year- old boy, died of starvation on Sunday.