The United Nations and other agencies sent humanitarian-aid convoys on Monday to a Syrian town that has been under siege for seven months by the Assad regime.
The United Nations and other agencies sent over 40 trucks to distribute food and medicine, being allowed into the town of 40,000 residents for the first time since October of last year.
"Many people were coming cheering, shaking our hands, but some of them were shouting angrily 'why did it take you so long?'" Pawel Krzysiek of the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters on Tuesday.
U.N. officials say that death by starvation cannot be confirmed. However, an aid group called Doctors without Borders say that at least 23 people have died from starvation since December 1, including 6 infants.
Siege is a common tactic of war, one that has been used in Syria’s five-year conflict by the regime, rebel groups, and Islamic State despite international laws that ban it.
The second aid convoy from aid agencies -- including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent -- following Monday’s delivery arrived Thursday.
