The Rastan local council on Friday appealed to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to provide flour to the besieged town located north of Homs after bakeries ran out of all stockpile of flour.
Head of the Council Mustafa Hussein said that bakeries in the town have stopped working for nearly a week, adding that the price of flour in the area has skyrocketed.
Hussein pointed out that relief aid organizations in the town used to produce 29,400 bags of bread (each bag contains eight loaves of bread) to meet the needs of civilians, adding that the prices of other food items have also risen as aid has not been allowed into the town for over 6 months.
Dozens of civilians today gathered in front of the local council building in Rastan to call on the UN to help provide bread for the residents.
US Secretary of State John Kerry earlier said the Assad regime is delaying aid deliveries in Syria and called on all parties to the civil war to abide by a partial ceasefire agreement that took effect late last week.
“Much of this aid could move faster. And so we call on the Assad regime to at least, in a moment of cessation of hostilities, try to show some measure of decency, if that is even possible,” Kerry said on Monday during a news conference alongside German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
On Friday, the Syrian Coalition expressed concern over reports that airdrops delivered by WFP to Deir Ez-Zor have been seized by Assad’s forces and urged the UN to investigate this incident.
The Syrian Coalition said that “technical issues with the airdrop raise serious questions over the decision to select a Russian contractor airliner to undertake the task.”
“To ensure humanitarian airdrops deliver aid to civilians who need it most, the aircraft used must be selected on the basis of their capability to conduct airdrops effectively, and not on terms dictated by Russia,” the Syrian Coalition added. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Anadolu)
