BEIRUT — Syrian opposition groups and international relief organizations are warning of the risk of mass starvation across the country, especially in the besieged Damascus suburbs where a gas attack killed hundreds last month.
With the world’s attention focused on the regime’s chemical weapons, activists said six people have died for lack of food in one suburb in recent weeks.
Save the Children said Monday that more than 4 million Syrians, more than half of them children, do not have enough to eat. Food shortages have been compounded by an explosion in prices.
Thousands of people are believed trapped in suburbs east and west of the capital that have been held for months by rebels and besieged by regime troops. Rebels say they are trying to break the blockade.
“We have no food, no milk and no medicine,” said a woman from the western suburb of Moadamiyeh, who identified herself by her nickname Um Lujain for fear of government reprisals. “We are surviving on one meal a day”
Um Lujain said her 18-month-old daughter has lost half her weight and spends most of her days sleeping. The woman said her daughter’s diet is based on the liquid she makes by boiling lentils.
“There has been no children formula or bread for about a year,” the woman said. She added that sometimes rebels find expired boxes of powdered milk in abandoned shops or pharmacies, and people still give it to their children.
According to the Moadamiyeh Media Center, six people have died of starvation over the past 20 days: two women and four children ages 18 months to 7 years.
Mahmoud Abu Ali, an activist in Moadamiyeh, said the suburb has been under siege for 307 days. He added that most of the cows, sheep and goats died as a result of shelling or lack of feed, and people cannot plant their land because of daily bombardment.
Khaled Iriqsousi, head of Syrian Arab Red Crescent, said the organization has not entered Damascus suburbs for five months because of the fighting.
