ISTANBUL — An aid convoy carrying medical supplies for besieged Syrian civilians entered a Damascus suburb for the first time since 2012, the United Nations and local activists said Wednesday, after Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government, announced a 48-hour cease-fire in the area.
The convoy included trucks from the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross, bringing medicine, vaccines and baby milk to the rebel-held city of Darayya on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Darayya residents have lived under a punishing government blockade for more than three years. An aid convoy dispatched in May was turned away by Syrian security forces at the last checkpoint, the ICRC and the United Nations said.
“First humanitarian aid to reach people of Daraya,” ICRC’s Syria office posted on Twitter on Wednesday. The organization posted a photograph showing its vehicles driving on parched land next to bombed-out buildings.
“We’ve just entered the city,” the tweet said.
The delivery comes after a push by world powers for wider humanitarian access in Syria, where regime forces and other armed groups have besieged civilian populations, causing severe shortages of food and other essentials. The United Nations says more than 11 million Syrians have been displaced in the years-long conflict and 400,000 have been killed.
Russia’s intervention on behalf of President Bashar Assad last fall prompted the ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the war, including a “cessation of hostilities” between rebel groups and regime forces that went into effect earlier this year. That cease-fire largely broke down in April, and humanitarian agencies have struggled to deliver even basic supplies to civilians in need.
Wednesday marked the deadline for aid deliveries to areas deemed “hard-to-reach” by the International Syria Support Group, a cluster of nations spearheading the diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. The group said this month that if the deadline was not met, the World Food Program would begin air drops of humanitarian supplies, including in Darayya.
The U.N. humanitarian coordination office said Wednesday it delivered food items to the Damascus suburb of Moadamiya, which is also under siege.
Still, “deliveries of aid continue to be rejected, delayed or tampered with – leaving the most vulnerable communities still in need,” Ashley Proud, Mercy Corps’ humanitarian director for Syria, said Wednesday.
“The continued failure to allow for the delivery of life-saving aid to innocent civilians is shameful,” Proud said.
The Local Council of Darayya issued a statement on the convoy’s arrival.
“A U.N. medical aid convoy has just entered the besieged city of Daraya,” the council posted on its Facebook page. “The convoy does not contain any food supply whatsoever.”
