When she was brought to a field hospital in rebel-held Moadamia, one mile north of Damascus, Syria’s capital, Rana Obaid had all the signs of severe malnutrition—a bloated belly, glassy eyes, hollow cheeks, and bloodied gums. Doctors examined her but there was little they could do.
The one-year-old died within a day. Cause of death: starvation.
Rana wasn’t the first Syrian child to die of hunger in Moadamia. A seven-year-old girl died due to malnutrition on Friday. Three other children (aged three, five, and seven) and two women (aged 34 and 48) also slowly starved to death, because Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s military and regime-backed militias had besieged the town.
Back in mid-August, the town fell victim to the Sarin nerve-gas chemical attack by the Assad regime. Over the past year, the town’s population has dropped from 70,000 to 12,000. Most had fled, but the remaining residents have no way to leave. More than half are women and children, according to the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
Anyone who tries to leave “gets shot or tortured to death,” Moadamia resident, Dani al Qappani told me over Skype that regime snipers will shoot people if they attempt to leave the town.
For nearly a year, the town has been under siege, meaning no food or medical supplies have been brought in, not even through humanitarian aid agencies. Bread supplies ran out more than six months ago.
The residents eat just whatever they can grow—olives, figs, berries, pomegranates, and foliage like grape leaves.
“It’s just something to keep them alive basically,” Dr. Nana said. “The leaves that you eat have no nutrition. It’s empty. It’s just to fill their stomachs.”
Moadamia resident and field hospital physician, Dr. Omar Hakeem, told me there’s “widespread hunger” in the town.
“Our children are dying between our hands one by one, not because of the bombing,” 26-year-old Dani said.
But there is bombing, too.
In addition to the daily battles between regime and opposition troops, the town is also under near constant regime attack by shelling. I heard shells exploding in the background over Skype while I interviewed the Moadamia natives. Dani apologized for the delay, “I am so, so sorry,” he said. “There is heavy shelling.”
Once the shelling subsided, Dani continued: “One year under siege. One year under heavy shelling. One year and our blood is being shed. We don't fear death anymore.”
The opposition estimates about 700 people were killed there.
“People live most of their time in shelters because of shelling from artillery and rocket launchers,” Dr. Hakeem said.
Electricity has been out for a year.
Children don’t go to school, because the schools are either “destroyed or deserted due to heavy shelling,” according to Dani. The town’s field hospital has ran out of almost everything. When people are sick, they take painkillers.
