UNITED NATIONS—The United Nations says the number of besieged areas in Syria’s conflict has risen to 18, up from 15 earlier this month, with as many as half a million people now affected.
As the U.N. hopes to get Syrian parties to begin peace talks on Friday, the organization’s humanitarian chief and the head of the World Food Program on Wednesday called upon Syria’s government to allow sustained access to besieged areas and to the estimated 4.5 million people in hard-to-reach areas.
Officials said the rare convoys that reached a few besieged communities earlier this month, after images of emaciated Syrian children were widely shared online, are not enough and that the food delivered will soon run out.
“One-off access ... is not the kind of access we need to prevent starvation,” U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien told reporters. He also called for immediate medical evacuations from besieged areas for the sick and wounded.
O'Brien called the idea of airdropping aid to besieged areas “risky” and insufficient, but diplomats said all options are still being discussed.
