Madaya

Rebels and pro-government forces have reached a deal to resume evacuations from east Aleppo as long as people are allowed to leave two Shiite villages besieged by insurgents and two other towns, Syrian state television reported on Dec. 18.

The United Nations began evacuating hundreds of people from besieged Syrian towns in a rare sign of humanitarian progress, as the U.S. Air Force for the first time deployed a B-52 bomber against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
 

U.N. convoys delivering aid to thousands of besieged Syrians were due to set out on Feb. 17, after  Syria's government approved access to seven besieged areas, including the city of Madaya, U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura's office said on Feb. 16 in Damascus following a meeting with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

Five people have starved to death in the last week in the Syrian town of Madaya, where a single biscuit sells for $15 and baby milk costs $313 per kilo, despite two emergency United Nations aid deliveries to the besieged town, a UN report said.

A convoy carrying desperately needed food and medicine headed to the hunger-stricken Syrian town of Madaya on Jan. 14, the second delivery of aid this week after months of government siege.

Aid trucks have reached three besieged towns in Syria, while negotiations to evacuate some 400 Syrians on the brink of death are being conducted. 

Aid workers found the 400 Syrians suffering from starvation, malnourishmnt and other illnesses during a visit to a hospital in Madaya, said U.N. Aid Chief Stephen O'Brien.  

Turkey has slammed Russia for conducting aerial strikes on civilians near the Syrian city of Aleppo that claimed the lives of at least 30 people, also calling on the international community to condemn Moscow. 

Dozens of aid trucks headed on Jan. 11 to the besieged rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya, where more than two dozen people are reported to have starved to death.