More residents in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya starved to death in recent days while waiting for the delivery of food and medical aid. Doctors inside Madaya, home to 40,000 residents, said five more people died of starvation on Sunday, including a nine-year-old boy, according to news agencies. The first shipment of food is expected to reach Madaya by Monday, according to U.N. officials, while Doctors Without Borders said on Sunday that 10 people were in need of immediate hospitalization. Doctors Without Borders also warned that a further 200 patients could deteriorate to a critical condition within a week without urgent aid. Last month, at least 23 people died of starvation inside the town amid pleas for the fast delivery of aid. The World Food Program and the International Committee for the Red Cross said they had loaded up a convoy of trucks filled with food and other relief supplies for Madaya but it has not yet left Damascus. On Sunday, the World Food Program tweeted an image of supplies being loaded onto an aid convoy heading to the besieged town. Blockades have been a common feature of the nearly five-year-old war that has killed an estimated 250,000 people. Government forces have besieged rebel-held areas near Damascus for several years and more recently rebel groups have blockaded loyalist areas including two villages in Idlib province. The fate of Madaya may be linked to those villages. The areas were all part of a local ceasefire agreement agreed in September but implementation has been halting. The last aid delivery to Madaya, which happened in October, was synchronized with a similar delivery to the Shi'ite villages -- al-Foua and Kefraya. Ali described the people of Madaya as hostages held as a bargaining chip for al-Foua and Kefraya. Aid agencies were hoping for easier access to the area following the ceasefire deal concluded under U.N. supervision.
