Convoys deliver aid to besieged Syria towns for second time this week

Convoys are delivering aid to three besieged communities in Syria for the second time this week to alleviate civilian suffering in cut-off areas.

A convoy of 44 trucks from the UN World Food Programme, International Committee for the Red Cross, and the Syrian Red Crescent has arrived in the rebel-held town of Madaya from the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Madaya, a former mountain resort near the Lebanon border, has been under siege for months by forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar Assad.

The trucks carry wheat, flour, cleaning materials, and medical supplies.

A similar aid convoy of 17 trucks was on its way to the villages of Foua and Kfarya, in the northern province of Idlib, which has been besieged by the Syrian rebels.

The Syrian Red Crescent organisation said its workers were preparing to unload the second aid delivery in a week.

The Madaya convoy also included a nutritionist and health teams to assess the humanitarian situation, said Tarek Wheibi, spokesperson for the ICRC in Beirut.

Reports of starvation have drawn international attention to Madaya, where an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people are thought to be trapped without food, electricity, and other basic supplies.