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Residents of Syria's besieged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, south
of Damascus, crowd on a destroyed street during food distribution, led
by UNRWA, on Jan. 31, 2014 (UNRWA/AFP/File) |
BEIRUT (AFP) -- Gaunt, ragged figures fill the streets for as far as the
eye can see in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk outside
Damascus, where some 40,000 are said to be slowly starving to death.
The
United Nations distributed shocking images this week of thousands of
people, their faces emaciated, desperately flocking to receive food aid
that only a few were lucky enough to collect.
"We live in a big prison," said Rami al-Sayed, a Syrian activist living in Yarmouk, speaking via the Internet.
"But at least, in a prison, you have food. Here, there's nothing. We are slowly dying."
"Sometimes,
crowds of children stop me on the streets, begging me: 'For the love of
God, we want to eat, give us food.' But of course, I have no food to
give them," Sayed said.
After months of shelling and fierce
fighting in and around Yarmouk between rebels and President Bashar
Assad's troops, the camp's population has shrunk from more than 150,000
to 40,000. Among them are 18,000 Palestinians.
Since last summer, the area has been under choking army siege, creating inhumane conditions for its inhabitants.
"We've been living off herbs, but these herbs are bitter. Even animals won't eat them," said Sayed.
"And if you go to the orchards to pick herbs from there, to use them to cook soup, you'll get sniped."
"The
situation is really tragic. On the streets, all you see are emaciated
people, their faces drained of any life. Sadness is everywhere," said
Sayed.
Even the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians was overwhelmed by the drama.
Since January, the agency has only been able to carry out limited, intermittent food distribution in the camp.
'Let us out, or let us die'"Gaunt,
ragged figures of all ages fill the streets of the devastated camp for
as far as the eye can see," UNRWA said, adding that such scenes were the
agency's "daily reality."
"Humanitarian need has reached
profound levels of desperation. Hunger and anxiety are etched on the
faces of the waiting multitudes."
Since January, UNRWA has
distributed only 7,500 food parcels in Yarmouk, describing that as "a
drop in the ocean compared with the rising tide of need."
One parcel feeds a family of between five and eight for 10 days.
"Yesterday (Wednesday) only 10 percent of people here received assistance," said Sayed.
Ali Zoya, a Palestinian living in Yarmouk, said "the aid will only last a few days."
Much of the camp has been reduced to rubble by shelling, fighting and occasional aerial bombardment.
The
distribution only began after rebels from outside the camp agreed to
withdraw, following a deal reached with Palestinian factions.
The lack of food in Yarmouk is compounded by medical shortages.
"In the hospitals, there are wounded people who cannot be treated because there are no doctors or medicines," said Sayed.
"I
saw a young man with a shrapnel wound to his leg. He won't get better
until he is able to leave the camp," which is still under siege even
though the rebels have withdrawn.
Since October, more than 100 people have died from food and medical shortages, says to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
After
a visit on Tuesday, UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi described the "shocking"
conditions of life he witnessed in Yarmouk. He compared the people
flocking to the distribution point as "the appearance of ghosts."
Their
despair echoes that of families who were trapped in rebel-held areas of
the central city of Homs for more than 18 months, also under a tight
army siege imposed to turn people against Syria's nearly three-year
revolt.
"People here are completely exhausted," said Sayed. "They feel tortured. They say: 'Let us out, or let us die.'"
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