in Syria, return to Madaya, scene of a merciless siege by the Assad regime

In Syria, before its fall almost two weeks ago, the regime of Bashar al-Assad used all the weapons at its disposal to bring the rebels to their knees, including that of hunger. This is the case of the town of Madaya, about fifty kilometers northwest of Damascus.

The city was the scene of a fierce siege for months which left many victims. The images of infants with emaciated faces and emaciated old people moved the international community.

The inhabitants of Madaya have all remembered the painful memory of the merciless siege they suffered. Azalée, a bereaved mother, remembers on franceinfo: “We were so hungry that our stomachs hurt. We were also suffering a lot because of the cold. My son then decided to go out to look for food and he never came back… We learned from the after he was shot by a sniper.”

“We stayed in the house most of the time. When we ran out of food, we started eating grass.”

Madaya, backed by the Lebanese border, was held by the rebels. To force them to capitulate, regime forces completely surrounded it, remembers Moussa al-Maleh, who headed the local council. “There was a sniper there, he remembers. Those crossing the street were targeted. Civilians, women, anyone. They were dropping barrel bombs indiscriminately. It was a real collective punishment.”

According to Madaya authorities, deprivation and famine killed 107 residents, including Ahmed’s brother.“The situation was catastrophic, people couldn’t help each other, there was nothing to eat… He was getting weaker and weaker, he had lost a lot of weight and he died just before the siege was lifted, at time when he was the strictest“, he regrets.

This siege was imposed by the Syrian army and the Lebanese Hezbollah, nicknamed “the party of God” whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed three months ago. “It was a party… We celebrated the death of Nasrallah, the leader of the devil’s party, and not the ‘party of God’, ever. He was an unbeliever. They killed our children, raped our women in prison, and our army was the ally of this party of the devil Bashar, we want you to be executed! says a resident.

But for justice to be done in Madaya and elsewhere in Syria, it will first be necessary to establish the rule of law after more than 50 years of undivided power by the Assad family.