Aid convoy caught in mortar fire as safe passage pledge in Eastern Ghouta is broken again

A HUMANITARIAN convoy delivered more aid to the besieged Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta yesterday despite getting caught up in mortar fire.

“Taken aback by renewed violence in Douma, Eastern Ghouta,” Robert Mardini, the director of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), wrote on Twitter moments after the shelling began, the second time the Syrian regime had broken a guarantee of safe passage.

The convoy of 13 trucks loaded with 2,400 food parcels had been due to venture into Eastern Ghouta on Thursday but the delivery was called off because of the intensive bombing.

Hadi al-bahra, a member of the Syrian Negotiation Commission, an opposition umbrella group, said that some of the food that did arrive had been spoiled by delays in getting through.

Residents shared pictures of their small aid bundles, which included a kilo and a half of rice, half a kilo of sugar, three tablespoons of butter and lentils for each family.

The deliveries have not been nearly enough to feed the roughly 380,000 people in the enclave.

The government assault on Eastern Ghouta began on Feb 18 and has continued almost ceaselessly for nearly three weeks, killing some 1,000 people and injuring 3,000 more.

Zeid Ra’ad al-hussein, the UN human rights chief, said the assault was “legally, and morally, unsustainable”.

The Uk-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the bombardment had stopped in the early hours of yesterday morning, giving residents their calmest night in some time. But not for long.

Moayad al-hafi, a resident of the Saqba neighbourhood, said: “Then air strikes began again, and there are still people under the rubble that we couldn’t get out.”

Ingy Sedky, a spokesman for the ICRC, said the group was hopeful of making a larger aid delivery next week.

Syrian regime troops and allied militias have captured several districts in the east of the opposition-held pocket and are moving to sever the last narrow corridor of territory connecting the northern and southern parts.

If Eastern Ghouta is divided in two by Bashar al-assad’s troops it would leave the Failaq al-rahman rebel group controlling the southern portion while the Jaish al-islam coalition would retain control of Douma and the north.