(Zaman Al Wasl)- A military offensive by Syrian regime forces and allied forces have cut supply routes to 120,000 people in northern Homs governorate since mid-January, causing a risk of hunger and deaths due to lack of medical care, the United Nations said Thursday.
"There are reports of increasingly acute shortages of food, basic commodities, medical items and fuel in the area. With the irregular supply routes used until mid-January now cut off, food items that are still available are now being sold at much higher prices," said the report by the U.N. humanitarian office.
Bread prices are already 10 times higher than in the city of Homs, and unaffordable for most families.
Northern Homs governorate is mostly farming land, but the fields yield little in winter and hunger is expected to spike in the next two weeks, the report said.
Basic medical supplies are also in short supply, the report said, noting dialysis patients in rural Homs were unable to access lifesaving treatment and 14 out of 34 cancer patients in the area had reportedly died due to lack of medical care.
The last U.N. aid convoy reached rural northern Homs in October 2015. The U.N. has been trying to send additional supplies since then, but has been unable to get approval.
The two enclaves are controlled by opposition groups and lie between the cities of Homs and Hama in a pocket of land close to Syria's north-south highway -- which links most of its main cities -- and the Mediterranean provinces that are the homeland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority.
There are 90,000 people in one enclave around the towns of Rastan and Talbiseh and a further 30,000 in another around Houla.
The severing of the supply lines has stopped U.N. food supplies reaching the enclaves, where 12.7 percent of children and 25 percent of pregnant women are suffering from moderate acute malnutrition, much higher than the national average of 4.9 percent, the U.N. said.
The area has been targeted by airstrikes and shelling since the end of October. There has been no electricity since then, and no pumped drinking water in Rastan and Talbiseh.
Also in Homs, the fate of 7350 detainees from the besieged al-Waer neighborhood is still unknown as the Syrian regime refuses to release them in binding to a U.N.-brokered deal reached last December.
The neighborhood's negotiations committee said regime is trying escape their demand and no release expected in the foreseeable future, source told Zaman al-Wasl.
Few days ago people of al-Waer went to street demanding their relative freedom. Regime said their fate will be known in 15 days in new procrastination round, according to the source.
On December 10, 300 fighters together with 400 members of their families, left al-Waer, the last rebel-held area of Homs as part of a rare local ceasefire deal negotiated between the opposition and the government.
The fighters and their families were being moved to rebel-held areas of the northwest near the Turkish border.
The United Nations says at least 260,000 people have been killed, 6.6 million people have been displaced in Syria and 13.5 million need humanitarian assistance. (With Reuters)
"There are reports of increasingly acute shortages of food, basic commodities, medical items and fuel in the area. With the irregular supply routes used until mid-January now cut off, food items that are still available are now being sold at much higher prices," said the report by the U.N. humanitarian office.
Bread prices are already 10 times higher than in the city of Homs, and unaffordable for most families.
Northern Homs governorate is mostly farming land, but the fields yield little in winter and hunger is expected to spike in the next two weeks, the report said.
Basic medical supplies are also in short supply, the report said, noting dialysis patients in rural Homs were unable to access lifesaving treatment and 14 out of 34 cancer patients in the area had reportedly died due to lack of medical care.
The last U.N. aid convoy reached rural northern Homs in October 2015. The U.N. has been trying to send additional supplies since then, but has been unable to get approval.
The two enclaves are controlled by opposition groups and lie between the cities of Homs and Hama in a pocket of land close to Syria's north-south highway -- which links most of its main cities -- and the Mediterranean provinces that are the homeland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority.
There are 90,000 people in one enclave around the towns of Rastan and Talbiseh and a further 30,000 in another around Houla.
The severing of the supply lines has stopped U.N. food supplies reaching the enclaves, where 12.7 percent of children and 25 percent of pregnant women are suffering from moderate acute malnutrition, much higher than the national average of 4.9 percent, the U.N. said.
The area has been targeted by airstrikes and shelling since the end of October. There has been no electricity since then, and no pumped drinking water in Rastan and Talbiseh.
Also in Homs, the fate of 7350 detainees from the besieged al-Waer neighborhood is still unknown as the Syrian regime refuses to release them in binding to a U.N.-brokered deal reached last December.
The neighborhood's negotiations committee said regime is trying escape their demand and no release expected in the foreseeable future, source told Zaman al-Wasl.
Few days ago people of al-Waer went to street demanding their relative freedom. Regime said their fate will be known in 15 days in new procrastination round, according to the source.
On December 10, 300 fighters together with 400 members of their families, left al-Waer, the last rebel-held area of Homs as part of a rare local ceasefire deal negotiated between the opposition and the government.
The fighters and their families were being moved to rebel-held areas of the northwest near the Turkish border.
The United Nations says at least 260,000 people have been killed, 6.6 million people have been displaced in Syria and 13.5 million need humanitarian assistance. (With Reuters)
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