(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (KUNA) -- The US State department slammed Syria's Assad regime to end its siege of Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta and allow relief workers aid tens of thousands of residents there.
"Assad Regime must end the siege of East Ghouta, Syria now. News of United Nations Aid is positive but children and families are still on the verge of starvation. Holding innocent families hostage is abhorrent.
"Food and medicine are not political tools. The UN must have unhindered access," State department spokesperson Heather Nauert stated in a series of tweets on Monday in response to the latest reports of violence by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held enclave north of the capital of Damascus, which struck at least one school in the town of Kfar Batna and killing at least 11 people in the Saqba and Hamouriyah districts.
A large convoy of trucks from the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered towns in the besieged Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta on Monday, bringing aid to 40,000 people for the first time since June 2016, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed on Twitter.
Conflict between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters there have pushed residents to the brink of starvation, United Nations relief workers reported. The UN children's agency, UNICEF, said 232 children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, with two infants reported to have died in the past month, and over 1,500 children at risk.
It comes days after the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein called the plight of civilians living there was "an outrage" that might "mount to a crime against humanity and/or a war crime war crime." (end) hy.bs
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