Latest developments
• A second joint UN/ ICRC/ Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy reached Madaya in Rural Damascus on Thursday 14 of January with 45 trucks delivering an additional 221 tons of supplies including food rations, winter clothes, WASH and health supplies to meet the critical needs of 40,000 people inside Madaya.
• Simultaneously, 18 trucks of supplies also reached the towns of Foah and Kafraya in Idlib. Since the convoy was unaccompanied, little information is available about the situation of communities in these areas.
• A third convoy is scheduled to place to the three towns early next week. UNICEF supplies on this convoy will include high emergency biscuits and diapers.
Context
• The town of Madaya is one of 15 besieged areas in Syria. Access to Madaya has been extremely constrained since early 2015.
• The last UN convoy to reach Madaya before the January 11th first joint UN/ ICRC/ SARC convoy, was in mid-October 2015. That convoy provided food rations for 20,000 people for one month.