BEIRUT: Food access in Syria’s battle-torn Raqa is now at “a critical turning point,” aid organisations said on Monday, with markets shuttered and residents depending fully on their dwindling stockpiles.
Raqa has been gripped by fierce fighting for nearly two months and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have ousted the IS group from half of the northern city.
An assessment released on Monday by REACH, a network of humanitarian organisations operating around Raqa, painted an increasingly dire picture.
“While in previous weeks residents were able to purchase some food at markets, the majority of key informants reported that residents are now relying entirely on food stored from previous weeks,” it said.
“Food markets, which were functioning sporadically three weeks ago, are generally no longer in operation.”
Bread was consistently found in 15 of Raqa’s 24 neighbourhoods several weeks ago.
Now it is no longer regularly available anywhere in the city.
Food prices have also skyrocketed, forcing residents to eat smaller meals or skip them entirely, the report said.
Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), an activist collective publishing news from inside the city, has also warned of food problems.
“The bakeries are closed because there’s no fuel or flour, and the shopowners have fled. Whatever flour is here is spoiled and full of worms,” RBSS activist Husaam Eesa said earlier this month.
“People can’t store things in the refrigerators because there’s no electricity. They can’t cook because there’s no water.”
The United Nations estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 people are still in Raqa, but REACH said the number could be as low as 10,000.
It estimated that the most densely populated district was Al Hurriya in the north, with at most 5,000 residents, and that 14 out of the 24 neighbourhoods were abandoned or almost abandoned.
According to REACH, only one wing of Raqa’s state hospital is still functioning but offers just basic first aid.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) echoed those concerns on Monday, saying wounded civilians were often trapped in the city for days or weeks without medical care.
“In Raqa city, if you don’t die from air strikes, you die by mortar fire; if not by mortars then by sniper shots; if not by snipers, then by an explosive device,” a 41-year-old with shrapnel wounds to his chest said after he fled Raqa.
“And if you get to live, you are besieged by hunger and thirst, as there is no food, no water, no electricity.”
Meanwhile, convoys of buses arrived on Monday to transfer thousands of Syrian militants and refugees from Lebanon’s border region into rebel territory in Syria in exchange for Hezbollah prisoners.
Under a local ceasefire between the militants and the Hezbollah, about 9,000 fighters and their relatives were to leave on Monday, a Hezbollah media unit said earlier.
The deal includes the departure of all Nusra Front militants from Lebanon’s border region around the town of Arsal, along with any civilians in nearby refugee camps who wish to go.
The truce echoes deals struck within Syria in which Damascus has shuttled rebels and civilians to Idlib province and other opposition areas.
Such evacuations have helped President Bashar al Assad recapture several rebel bastions over the past year.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting militants along the frontier during Syria’s six-year war, sending thousands of combatants to support government.
Last week, Hezbollah took most of the mountainous zone of Jroud Arsal in a joint offensive with the Syrian army to drive Nusra militants from their last frontier foothold.
The Nusra Front was Al Qaeda’s Syria branch until it severed ties and rebranded last year. It now spearheads the Tahrir al Sham alliance in the Syrian war. — Agencies
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