Syrian children eating grass leaves recent casualties of starvation. Families are eating leaves, grass and water flavored with spices.
The families are eating leaves, grass and water flavored with spices in the Syrian town of Madaya.
Syrian children eating grass leaves recent casualties of starvation.
Some have killed and eaten their pets.
People are dying in slow motion,” said Louay, a social worker from the town told the in a phone interview, his voice weakened by months of abject hunger.
We had some flowers growing in pots at home.
Yesterday, we picked the petals and ate them, but they were bitter, awful.”
He sent pictures of emaciated bodies of several elderly men, recent casualties of the starvation.
We used to say nobody could ever die from hunger, but we have seen people actually die of hunger.”
The Local Revolutionary Council in Madaya, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting.
Who can still move around, and should normally be in school, are risking their lives trying to collect plants in minefields around the town edges.
“You don’t see a child whose eyes aren’t sunken and staring from hunger.”
Up to 30,000 people have been trapped in Madaya since July, under a tight siege by pro-government forces.
The government forces are now starving Madaya and neighbouring Zabadani, once a stronghold of the opposition.
Syrian children eating grass leaves recent casualties of starvation.
Foreign backers of the government and the opposition are attempting to orchestrate a population swap, essentially a peaceful sectarian cleansing.
I tried to buy some food today, but a kilo of rice is 100,000 Syrian pounds.
At the black market exchange rate that would be close to $250.
Hunger is made worse by the biting cold in an area around 1,300 meters above sea level, near the border with Lebanon.
