U.N. Delivers First Aid to Besieged Syrian Town since 2012

The United Nations has delivered life-saving aid to thousands of people in the besieged Syrian town of Mouadamiya for the first time since early 2012, humanitarian agencies said on Friday. 

A spokeswoman for the World Food Program said aid workers with food and hygiene supplies managed to enter the embattled town, 10 kilometers (six miles) south-west of Damascus, on July 14. 

"As of July 17, a total of 2,900 family food rations were delivered in support of 14,500 people (in Mouadamiya)," spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said, adding the mission to bring aid to the town had been extended for three days.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution authorizing humanitarian convoys to Syria without the consent of the Damascus regime, to help more than one million civilians in rebel-held areas.

UNICEF spokesman Chris Tidey said the aid group had delivered hundreds of food items and 40,000 bars of soap to the town, where a truce between Syrian rebels and government troops has been in place since December last year.

"Conditions in Mouadamiya are extremely harsh and there have been reported cases of death by starvation," he said. 

More than 10.8 million Syrians are in need of aid, according to U.N. officials, who have accused Damascus of impeding deliveries of life-saving supplies.