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Several Syrian towns on brink of starvation: UN official

Xinhua, February 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Senior Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria Jan Egeland urged parties to the Syrian conflict on Thursday to allow humanitarian aid to reach the towns of Fuah, Kafraya, Madaya and Zabdani in light of the critical lack of supplies in the four besieged locations.

"If we're not able to reach the four towns... very soon we will see the scenes that we saw when the whole thing started a year ago: people starving," Egeland warned.

He further stressed that the situation in eastern Ghouta, not far from Syria's capital Damascus, is also of grave concern.

According to media reports, Egeland said that five people have recently lost their lives in Madaya and Kafraya because they could not be medically evacuated.

He highlighted that further 80 people including children are in urgent need of evacuation so as to receive live-saving treatment.

According to Egeland, intensive efforts are currently taking place to unlock the "horrific gridlock" in the four towns where some 60,000 people are trapped by government or rebel forces.

"Lift the sieges is our appeal, sieges belong in the middle ages, they do not belong in 2017," he said.

According to the UN, 13 locations are still considered besieged in Syria, a country where an estimated 400,000 people have died since the conflict erupted in March 2011. Endit