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Besieged Syrian area to receive aid as relief operations resume: UN

Xinhua, September 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

An aid convoy is expected to reach besieged Madamiyet in rural Damascus on Thursday, 72 hours after 18 aid trucks were destroyed by an air strike in the north of the country, senior advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria Jan Egeland said.

"Today we hope to enter Madamiyet, a very important town, where people have been suffering very long and where they have been squeezed by all armed actors," he said.

This comes after road deliveries were temporarily suspended by the UN following a deadly attack on trucks attempting to deliver food, medical supplies and non-food items to Urum al-Kubra, northwest of Aleppo.

Egeland hoped that if successful, Thursday's delivery would be a "turning-point," allowing further aid to reach Madaya, Al-Waer and other besieged areas in the coming days.

East Aleppo, where some 275,000 civilians are trapped by fighting pitching forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebel groups, has yet to be reached however.

Forty humanitarian trucks set to deliver aid there have been stuck on the Turkish-Syrian border since a shaky truce came into being on Sept. 12.

"The food will be expiring on Monday, the drivers have been sleeping at the border for a week," Egeland warned. Enditem