Aid Begins To Reach Besieged Syrian Region, But Many Medical Supplies Blocked
Trucks carrying food for 27,500 people have entered Eastern Ghouta, which has suffered weeks of brutal attacks. The Assad regime prohibited most of the convoy's medical supplies from being sent in.
Aid supplies are beginning to reach the besieged community of Eastern Ghouta for the first time in weeks — but the Syrian regime refused to allow many medical supplies, stripping them out of the aid convoy.
The blocked supplies are "desperately needed to save lives and reduce suffering," the World Health Organization told NPR via email.
Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, has been bombarded for months, with air strikes by the Syrian government and Russia accelerating sharply February. Some 600 civilians are estimated to have died in in the past few weeks.
The U.N. Security Council demanded a cease-fire across Syria
