Syrians Eat Leaves as Combatants Block Food Supplies: HRW

[Purveyor]

By Francis Harris - Dec 3, 2013

Syrians in besieged communities are being denied food by both government forces and some opposition groups, leaving poorly nourished civilians to scavenge to stay alive, according to Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based group interviewed activists and residents in districts of Damascus, communities close to the capital and in the city of Homs, it said in a report today. A total of 288,000 people are estimated by the United Nations to be living under siege in these areas.

“The only food we have left is olives, some basic vegetables, and we eat the leaves off the trees,” the advocacy group quoted an activist in Moadamiya, near Damascus, as saying. “Sometimes we cook soup using some of the vegetables, add salt and pepper and olive oil, but it tastes like nothing and it provides little nutrition.”

Syria’s two-year civil war has claimed at least 125,000 lives, about half of them civilians, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday. Fighting in Syria has spilled into neighboring Lebanon, Israel and Turkey even as the UN Security Council has often split over a possible international response.

“Access to besieged communities is a litmus test for real change in the relief effort, and the Security Council should make clear that Syria is failing that test,” HRW’s Philippe Bolopion said in the report.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-03/syrians-eat-leaves-as-combatants-block-food-supplies-hrw.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Reminds me of the eats, shoots and leaves chestnut.

As an aside it surprised me that China was so stingy with the regard to the Philippines but more generous with regard to the WFP for Syria : China gives $2 Million to WFP Syria's emergency food aid programme http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/11/china-gives-2-million-to-wfp-syrias-emergency-food-aid-programme/