The local council of the town of Zabadani appealed to relief and humanitarian agencies and organizations to provide urgent aid to the civilians trapped in the towns of Madaya and Baqqin in Rural Damascus.
The council stressed the urgent need for heating equipment to save civilians trapped inside from imminent death with the onset of a harsh winter. Hundreds of families from Zabadani have been displaced to the nearby towns of Madaya and Baqqin after regime forces and the Hezbollah forced them to leave their homes.
Madaya, Zabadani, and Baqqin are located in a hilly area near the Lebanese border where temperatures fall below zero during winter.
Last week, the council in the town of Madaya warned that hundreds of civilians trapped inside are faced with the threat of starvation as a result of the acute shortage of food. Around 90 people have died of hunger and cold in the town over the past year.
The siege of Madaya, in place since 2012, has been tightened since 2015 with the Hezbollah militias preventing civilians from entering or leaving the town. Regime forces and the Hezbollah militias have also been impeding the delivery of aid by the UN aid agencies.
Residents of Zabadani, estimated at 60,000, were forced to leave the town and seek refuge in the nearby towns of Madaya and Baqqin in the wake of the fierce onslaught by regime forces and the Hezbollah militia on the town. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office)
