Many residents, including little children, from a town in southern Syria are starving to death, and they have their own government to blame.
A report by NBC News depicted the horrifying situation in Moadamiyeh, a town located 10 km southwest of Damascus where the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has cut off the delivery of essential supplies like food, water, medicines and electricity as part of its campaign against rebel forces holed up in the town.
This so-called "siege warfare," however, is adversely affecting not just the rebels. Innocent civilians are also being punished and have been left for weeks without food and other supplies.
In a Skype interview with NBC News, Dani Qappani, a 27-year-old anti-regime activist in Moadamiyeh, described how his fellow residents are living in a place that feels like a death camp.
"Now there is no food at all," Qappani said of Moadamiyeh. "People live on cat and dogs, herbs and boiled water only. There is no food."
The rebel himself said he has been eating just a few pieces of olives for the past few days just to be able to survive.
He said the residents suffer from the cold because of lack of fuel. They also cannot go to nearby farms to collect fruit or firewood because they risked being shot or bombed by pro-government forces if they do so.
The Syrian military has set up checkpoints all around Moadamiyeh to prevent food and medicine from being brought inside. As a result, diseases are also reportedly spreading in the isolated Syrian town.
International aid organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been trying to bring in food for Moadamiyeh residents for weeks now, according to NBC News. However, local activist groups said some of these supplies have been intercepted by the Syrian government and delivered instead to "regime supporters."
