The Guardian writes that a briefing published last month by the Damaan Humanitarian Organization reveals in detail how the Syrian government, and to a lesser degree, other armed groups, intentionally and repeatedly deprived civilians of food, deploying hunger as a core weapon in their arsenal. It demands accountability for these starvation crimes and highlights the humanitarian catastrophe it caused.
It says: In 2017, we started an agricultural project to help hundreds of families survive the blockade by the Assad government, as part of the Damaan Humanitarian Organization’s programme to support civilians in besieged eastern ghouta in Syria.
The project not only provided sustenance to the besieged population, it offered employment opportunities for many people.
Just before the harvest in 2018, our field was bombed by the Syrian regime. The crops, and our hopes, were destroyed. The siege had tightened and the cost of staying alive skyrocketed for hundreds of thousands of civilians in the besieged enclave.
Further reading
- Ethiopia: Hunger ‘used as a weapon of war’ in Tigray
- Russian invasion risks hunger in Middle East and North Africa
- OmniAction launches to tackle greenwashing, slavery, land theft, poor diets
