Nearly one million people are living under siege in Syria, the UN aid chief said Monday (November 21st), AFP reported.
The new figure of 974,080 people marks a dramatic increase from 486,700 Syrians living in besieged areas just six months ago, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council.
"Nearly one million Syrians are living tonight under siege," O'Brien said.
"Civilians are being isolated, starved, bombed, denied medical attention and humanitarian assistance in order to force them to submit or flee," he said.
Some of the areas added to the UN's siege list are located in the Eastern Ghouta region of rural Damascus.
Condemning this "deliberate tactic of cruelty", O'Brien said the sieges were mostly perpetrated by Syrian regime forces against civilians.
The UN Security Council was meeting to discuss the crisis in Syria as fighting intensified in Aleppo, where food rations were running out.
