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Crisis-hit areas in Syria face severe food shortages-ICRC

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:53 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

Children with their faces painted with the colours of the Syrian opposition flag take part in a protest organized by Islamist Sunni group of al-Jamaat al-Islamiya, in solidarity with Syria's anti-government protesters, in Sidon, southern Lebanon, February 12, 2012. REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho

By Erika Solomon

BEIRUT, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Syrians living in areas hit by the conflict between the government and opposition forces are now struggling to find even basic foodstuffs, a Damascus-based spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday.

"The situation has been increasingly violent and it hasn't been easy for people to do anything. The streets are empty, people can't go anywhere to buy food. There is even a problem getting bread, " the ICRC's Saleh Dabbakeh told Reuters by telephone.

In the flashpoint city of Homs, heart of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, the army has mounted a 10-day assault on rebel strongholds. Activists have reported hundreds killed and whole buildings levelled by rocket and machinegun fire.

Fighting between government forces and rebels has made access to hard-hit areas like Homs's neighbourhood of Baba Amro nearly impossible for local Syrian Red Crescent workers, Dabbakeh said.

"It has been very difficult in Baba Amro. If our workers are at risk of being killed, they certainly won't be allowed to go into that neigubourhood," he said.

"There are injured and killed but no one knows anything about accurate figures. I won't even talk about numbers but it is not a good situation."

Local Red Crescent workers have set up nine other centres round the city, he said, where residents can get medical care or receive food and supplies.

But those clinics may be hard to access for residents stuck inside neigubourhoods rocked with violence since the crackdown on rebels intensified two weeks ago. Shelling has often lasted for hours and government forces surround some rebel-held areas, in addition to the maze of checkpoints already around the city.

MEDICAL EVACUATIONS

Red Crescent workers last Saturday arranged medical evacuations in one violence-hit Homs neighbourhood.

"They evacuated more than 80 people, mostly women and children, from an area called Inshaat where there has been intensive fighting. The army gave a five-hour ceasefire for us to go around and evacuate people," the spokesman said.

The United Nations said in December more than 5,000 people have been killed in the govenrment's crackdown on the uprising.

The Assad government says it is fighting "terrorists" who have killed more than 2,000 members of its security forces.

Activists have reported hundreds more deaths since the United Nations released its figures but details on unrest in Syria are hard to verify due to restricted access to journalists.

Dabbakeh said the ICRC sent a convoy of supplies up to Homs on Saturday, with food and medical supplies, most of them for treating wounds. It hopes to send another convoy in the coming days, he said.

On Monday, the ICRC sent a convoy to the mountain town of Bludan, he said, where several thousand Syrians had fled from violence in nearby Madaya and the rebel stronghold Zabadani near the Syrian-Lebanese border.

"They provided medical aid, food, as well as baby milk and blankets. That area is very cold and usually white with snow at this time of year," he said. "But the most important thing these people need now is food."

The ICRC has been authorised by the Syrian government since June to enter areas hit by unrest since the uprising, which began in March with peaceful protests but has been overshadowed in past months by a growing armed insurgency.

"We want everybody involved in the violence to ensure that access is facilitated for volunteers," Dabbakeh said. "They must be able to enter places in need so they can provide life-saving interventions." (Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Angus MacSwan)