UNICEF: Over 20,000 Syrian children starving in Madaya

More than 20,000 children in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya are at risk of further hunger and starvation, United Nations Children's Fund said Friday.

Almost 42,000 people remaining in Madaya are at risk of further hunger and starvation and half of them are children, UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac told a press conference at the UN Office in Geneva on Friday.

The Syrian regime has agreed to allow aid into besieged Madaya town where residents are reportedly starving to death, the UN said on Thursday.

The UN said the aid delivery will reach to Madaya in coming days.

Apart from providing aid to Madaya, the UN will also provide assistance to two towns, Foah and Kefraya, in the Syrian province of Idlib which are besieged by rebel groups, it added.

The Syria conflict, which will enter its sixth year in early 2016, has left more than 250,000 people dead and turned the country into the world's largest source of refugees and displaced persons, according to the UN.

Nearly eight million victims are internally displaced and more than four million have fled to nearby countries since the conflict started.

Source: MENA