As an agreement ends the siege of Homs, hunger becomes a new weapon of war
Damascus (AsiaNews) - Syria's regime and rebels holed up in central Homs for the past two years have reached an agreement.
Opposition fighters and wounded are to be allowed to withdraw with their families, some 2,200 people, towards rebel-held areas in the north of the country,
In exchange, the rebels will release 70 Iranian and Lebanese prisoners, held by rebels in Aleppo, and will allow humanitarian aid into two pro-regime Shia villages near the city.
Before they leave Homs, the rebels must deliver maps detailing the minefields they have set.
The agreement remains tentative because neither side trusts the other. However, if it is implemented, Homs will be free from rebel control after two years during which people died of hunger and thirst, or were killed like Jesuit Fr Frans Van der Lugt.
Food and hunger have in fact become weapons of war in Syria's civil war. In many areas under siege, residents have criticised the rebels for failing to bring in food.
At the (failed) talks in Geneva last February, an agreement was reached to allow humanitarian (food and medicine) aid into areas under siege. However since then, little or nothing has been done. In fact, UN sources say that only 242,000 people under siege have received aid so far.
The regime is trying to stop aid distribution in rebel-held areas. NGO sources report that at least 100 people have died in the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk, south of Damascus, because of the lack of medicine and food.
The UN Security Council had called on the warring parties to allow quick, safe and unhindered access to its humanitarian agencies and their partners. But, like the Syrian regime, the rebels too are holding back aid from government-controlled areas.
Last month, Ban said none of the warring parties in Syria was meeting UN demands for access and demanded the Security Council take action on violations of international law.
On the ground, as Assad's troops continue to score victories, the government is planning next month 's presidential election, at least in areas under its control. By contrast, chaos and division continues to prevail in the armed opposition.
The al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, continues to fight against the Free Syrian Army and rivals jihadists (including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIS), this despite an appeal by al-Qaeda's chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to join forces.
In the south, al-Nusra abducted Ahmad al Neamah, a moderate rebel military commander, and five other officers. Neamah had accused jihadists of undermining their struggle.
In the eastern part of the country, four days of fighting between al-Nusra and ISIS has displaced some 60,000 people, with 62 dead.
After more than three years of war and 150,000 dead and millions of refugees or internally displaced people, the United Nations criticised the international community yesterday for failing to provide adequate aid to Syrian refugees in the region's host countries, stressing that massive help was needed.
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