Ahad Mir
September 24, 2013
Current Event
Human Geography

Mass Starvation in Syria
“With world’s attention focused on chemical weapons, mass starvation feared in Syria”, Beirut. Opposition groups and the international relief organizations in Syria are warning the risk of mass starvation across the Damacus suburbs, where a gas attacked killed hundreds last month. Since everyone’s attention in the world seems to be on the chemical weapons, activists said six people have died for the lack of food in the one of the roughest area in the suburbs for the past weeks.
With the food shortages being compounded by the explosion of their prices, more than 4 million Syrians, more than half of them children, do not have enough to eat. Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East says “ The world has stood and watched as the children of Syria have been shot, shelled, and traumatized by the horror of war”, the conflict not only has already left thousands of children dead, and is now threatening their means of staying alive. Many people are being trapped in the suburbs in the east and west of the capital that have been held for there for months by the rebels fighting to topple the President Bashar Assad. Which only means getting food is extremely difficult.
Many places have been hit within the country but some hard hit areas such as the western suburb of Moadamiyah, people are running out of food and are mostly replying on lentils, olives and dried figs. Um Lujain a resident identifies her nickname for the fear of the government reprisals says, “ We have no food, no milk, no medicine”. Her 18-month-old daughter has lost half her weight and spends most of her time sleeping. She also says, her daughters diet is based on the liquid she makes by boiling lentils since there has been no children formula or bread for about a year. Rebels find expired boxes of powdered milk in abandoned shops or pharmacies, and people still give it to their children due to lack of the food.
Six people have died of starvation over the past 20 days; four children ages 18 months to 7 years, and two women according to the Moadamiyeh Media Center. There are also 15 other children that are in the intensive care in clinics suffering from malnutrition. Rana Obeid, the 18 month old girl was the latest to die on Monday. There was a video of her lying on a bed and her ribs were visible and her stomach bloated. They said the video appeared legit and corresponded to the other AP reporting to the events depicted. The opposition Syrian National Coaliton on Monday accused government forces of tightening their mouths-long