The Telegraph reports: Fresh evidence has emerged of how starving Syrians are being forced to eat grass to survive as President Bashar al-Assad’s regime defies the UN to tighten sieges across Syria.

International aid agencies say that the regime is using humanitarian aid – which is supposed to be delivered freely under both international law and United Nations resolutions – as a bargaining chip.

Aid workers claim the crisis has now spread well beyond the town of Madaya, north west of Damascus, where photographs of emaciated children caused an international outcry earlier this month.

Omar Hakim, a doctor in Syrian capital, reported similar scenes of horror in the south-west suburb of Moadhamiya last week.
“Twelve people died last week, six of them children,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.

“There are 1,500 patients here suffering chronic diseases which require treatment or medicine which is not available. Six hundred children need breast-feeding but their mothers can’t feed them because they’re malnourished too.

“People are eating grass, and rice if it’s available. The aid which has been sent is not enough to keep people alive.”

Sieges have been used as a weapon since the start of the war, but the situation has worsened in recent weeks. [Continue reading…]