A map by Twitter user @PetoLucem showing the situation in Aleppo during late September. Since then, rebels have lost control over areas in the north of the besieged pocket.

After rebels suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the Syrian regime and their allies, East Aleppo has once again been placed under siege. Despite Idlib-based rebels promising to relieve the siege for a second time, many residents are now preparing for the worst case scenario — a long, protracted siege with aid convoys being denied access to the city. The beginning of the second siege has been marked with an unprecedented Russian air campaign, killing hundreds of civilians and prompting the UN to warn that East Aleppo could be totally destroyed within months.

Large swathes of East Aleppo have been destroyed by intense Russian bombardments

Dwindling food supplies, indiscriminate airstrikes and the destruction of key infrastructure means East Aleppo — home to over 300,000 people - is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.

Distributing food to the poor

When members of the charity One Ummah arrived in East Aleppo after the first battle to lift the siege, they met an elderly-looking father who was quite literally on his last pennies — and the brink of starvation.

One Ummah distributing food aid to civilians in East Aleppo, including one father on his last pennies.

Food shortages have put already poverty-stricken families under immense strain, and as prices continue to skyrocket, the situation for the less fortunate is becoming increasingly desperate. To help combat the growing amount of people going hungry, projects have been founded to help feed East Aleppo’s poor.

On the Ground News, a team of journalists trapped in besieged Aleppo, interviewed Abu Omar, a chef for a charity which provides free food for over 1,200 needy people daily.

Abu Omar’s charity is an example of one of the many projects that can be found across East Aleppo. However, as food supplies slowly disappear by the day, residents are taking food production into their own hands.

Urban agriculture

A farmer in East Aleppo tending to fields on the outskirts of the city [Al-Jazeera]

The majority of East Aleppo’s inhabitants have been forced to survive on food imported before the siege, or on what little is left of previous aid deliveries. Many farmers have found themselves selling off their livestock and cattle in order to survive.

Locals have considered the possibility of being besieged since at least 2014, when some families took to growing vegetables in their homes in preparation. However, the amount of food grown this way is wholly inadequate to feed the entire pocket.

With UN aid convoys being denied access into the besieged districts, the responsibility of solving East Aleppo’s food problem rests upon the shoulders of volunteers and the few farmers who remain.

One such person is Salim Atrache, who with his team of volunteers — known as the “Red Team” — have taken up the challenge of cultivating 37 hectares of land on Aleppo’s outskirts.

“Right now, there’s only a bit of parsley, aubergine and courgettes at high prices in the markets. Some are 10 times more expensive than they are normally,” he told Al-Jazeera, describing the state of East Aleppo’s food situation. “After the siege of Aleppo and the prevention of food from entering the city, there was an urgent need for agricultural self-sufficiency.”

Unsurprisingly, the Red Team have already faced multiple problems. Fuel shortages mean that vehicles and machinery can only be used sparingly. In addition, difficulties securing vital equipment such as hoses has caused production to be considerably slow and labor-intensive. And though being sheltered from the intense clashes in the more urban areas, the farm has been targeted by regime shelling at least once, the team told Al-Jazeera — a grim reminder of the extreme risks involved.

Despite these drawbacks and obvious dangers, the team remains hopeful. “I think the start has been successful,” Atrache commented. “The farm is the first way to cultivate large areas within the city,” he added, noting that the team is beginning to collect their first harvests.

Smuggling

However, government forces are slowly closing in on the pocket. As a result, land — especially arable land — is becoming a scarce resource. And food reserves are plummeting. Speaking to AFP, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned that food rations in East Aleppo are expected to run out by the end of October.

But with a few exceptions such as Madaya, sieges in Syria aren’t watertight. Some supplies are able to be smuggled into besieged areas through bribery or underground tunnels, the vast majority of which ending up on the black market where they are sold for extortionate prices. This has proved lucrative for pro-government groups manning checkpoints surrounding these besieged areas, as controlling the flow of supplies can often be worth millions of USD a month.

It is difficult to determine whether smugglers will be able to consistently bring enough food into East Aleppo in the long term. Most areas surviving through smuggling also happen to have frontlines manned by the NDF, a pro-government militia known for corruption and thievery, or various other less-disciplined elements of the army.

With the regime set on taking the entirety of rebel-held East Aleppo - which it considers vital to winning the war - it is likely more professional units less friendly to smuggling, such as the well-trained Tiger Forces and Republican Guard, will be encircling the pocket along with sectarian Shi’ite militias such as Hezbollah (who also control the area around Madaya).

Deaths due to malnutrition in besieged Madaya sent shockwaves around the world.

And whilst the regime is willing to turn a blind eye to smuggling operations in other ‘less strategic’ besieged areas, it wants East Aleppo to submit — whether that be through starvation, military defeats or the complete destruction of the rebel-held half of the city.

The siege of East Aleppo must be broken — or it is doomed.

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