The first humanitarian convoys carrying water, rice and flour have started entering the besieged town of Madaya in southern Syria, where people are dying of starvation, the UN says.
Earlier in the day, a total of 39 trucks with humanitarian aid were expected in the town, RT’s Murad Gazdiev reported from the area.
Media coverage is low, and there are no Western journalists on the scene, according to Gazdiev.
However, since the start of January, social media and MSM have been flooded with reports, saying many have died of starvation in the besieged town of Madaya, and that government forces loyal to President Assad are to blame.
Various media outlets, including the Telegraph, the Independent, BBC, CNN and Fox news said Syrians were eating domestic animals, and had been left without any help. Some media didn’t bother to re-check the authenticity of images allegedly showing dying Madaya residents.
No one has as yet been able to confirm that the images are actually authentic. RT decided to investigate the photos.
One haunting image posted on Arab-speaking social media shows a starving man supposedly lying somewhere in the streets of Madaya, a town with a population of about 9,000 people.
“The victims of starvation caused by Bashar Assad, Hezbollah and Iranian militias on Madaya and Al-Zabadani,” says the caption under the image.
However, the story behind the starving man turned out to be fabricated. In fact, he starved to death in the city of Ghouta a year ago, according to the Syrian American Medical Society. The picture was taken on January 13, 2015.
“Mohammad Yoususf An-Najjar, disabled, from Damascus died on 13 January due to extreme cold and lack of food during the government forces’ siege of Eastern Ghouta,” the Syrian network of human rights said.
An image of a Syrian girl that appeared in Arab media prompted global condemnation of Assad’s policies. It was claimed she had turned into a lifeless shadow of herself due to extreme starvation.