Aid workers will work overnight to offload contents of trucks and say it might take days to distribute it all to starving residents of Syrian town

A convoy bearing humanitarian aid and food supplies has arrived in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, where residents are thought to have been starving to death.

“We managed to reach Madaya with the humanitarian aid,” said Pawel Krzysiek, a Red Cross spokesman, in an audio message from inside the town. “The first impression is really heartbreaking. You see a lot of people on the street, some of them smiling and waving to us, but many just simply too weak with a very, very bleak expression, very tired.”

Inside Madaya: 'it feels deserted but you know there are people there' Read more

Speaking to the Guardian from Madaya on Monday evening, resident Ebrahem Abbas said four trucks of aid had entered the town. “People are of course happy,” he said. “They are without food and are waiting and hoping to cook something today but it looks like it won’t be finished until the morning.”

Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have enforced a tight siege on Madaya since July, and until now only one aid delivery had been allowed in, in October.

The Syrian government moved to allow the latest delivery after images of emaciated children and adults prompted worldwide condemnation. The delivery was coordinated with others to Fua and Kefraya, two Shia villages that are surrounded by rebels.

The fates of the three places have been tied for months, and aid deliveries were only allowed if they were simultaneous. Attempts by backers of the rebels and the government to orchestrate a population swap have yet to succeed, but an evacuation of the wounded was agreed in late December.

“It’s really heartbreaking to see the situation of the people,” Krzysiek said. “A while ago I was just approached by a little girl and her first question was: ‘Did you bring food? I hope that you brought food to Fua and Kefraya and to Madaya because we are really hungry.’ And I believe her. She looked hungry.”

The delivery – orchestrated by the International Committee for the Red Cross, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the United Nations – took place as night set in on Madaya. The first four trucks carried food, medical aid, blankets and other supplies for the town of more than 30,000 people. The ICRC said it would work overnight to offload the contents of the aid trucks – 40 in total have been sent to Madaya, and 21 to Fua and Kefraya – and it might take days to distribute it all.

The convoys were delayed at the entrances to the towns while the supplies were cross-checked and to ensure that the aid deliveries were made at the same time in each town.

The supplies are expected to last a month. “Our main main message is that this is not the long-term solution neither for Madaya nor Fua and Kefraya or any other besieged place,” Krzysiek told the Guardian in a phone interview. “The most important thing is that we are able to access these places on a regular basis.”

The ICRC said it would work on distributing medicine through local health authorities. Residents face myriad medical problems. “You have pretty much everything here – chronic diseases like diabetes, people weak, people swollen because they have to eat this water with spices,” Krzysiek said.

Madaya: residents of besieged Syrian town say they are being starved to death Read more

Residents in Madaya say they have been forced to live on tree leaves, flavoured water and grass scoured from minefields, and children have been kept from succumbing to malnourishment by being fed sugar serums. Several have died of hunger.

On Sunday five more people – a nine-year-old boy and four men – died of starvation, the international charity Médecins Sans Frontières said.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in Syria trapped under long-term siege, according to UN figures. Activists say starvation sieges have been used as a deliberate strategy in the war, which has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives in nearly five years.

Aid agencies welcomed the arrival of aid in Madaya but said one-off deliveries would not save starving Syrians.

“Madaya’s estimated 42,000 inhabitants have been trapped with limited basic supplies and food prices rising astronomically every day,” a group of aid agencies including Oxfam, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. “Today’s delivery will provide food for up to a month, according to the UN, but agencies warn that this one-off permission to deliver will be insufficient given the current shocking reported levels of malnutrition.”

The statement added: “Madaya is one of 15 areas across Syria under siege, with inhabitants restricted from leaving and aid workers blocked from bringing in food, medicine, fuel and other supplies. The eight agencies call for all parties to the conflict to end the siege of civilian areas and ensure permanent humanitarian access.

“Right now, more than 4.5 million people in Syria live in besieged or hard-to-reach areas. People in these areas also desperately need assistance and protection, yet access to them keeps deteriorating.”