The World Food Program (WFP) said on Sunday it had carried out its first ever successful high-altitude airdrop, to deliver 20 tons of food aid to the besieged city of Deir Ezzor.
A previous attempt to drop aid to the city where 200,000 people have been living under siege by ISIS group since March 2014 failed in February, WFP said in a statement.
The supplies- beans, chickpeas and rice enough to feed 2,500 people for a month- were collected for distribution in the city by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
“More airdrops are planned for the coming days to meet food and other humanitarian needs for the besieged population,” WFP said, adding that airdrops would always be a last resort used when land access was impossible.
The Syrian Coalition repeatedly urged the United Nations to designate the situation in Madaya, Zabadani and Muadamiyah, where more than 90,000 civilians are trapped, “a humanitarian disaster requiring urgent international humanitarian intervention.”
The Coalition said: “Life-saving aid must be airdropped to the civilians trapped inside long as Assad regime and Hezbollah militias continue to block the entry of relief aid through land routes.”
The Coalition warned that regime forces may seize the airdrops just as they did in February in Deir Ezzor. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
