Doctor fears more children will starve to death if roads don't open to besieged Damascus suburbs

WARNING: This story contains graphic images of a severely emaciated infant.

Story transcript

Sahar Dofdaa, who is pictured below, was just 34 days old when she died from malnutrition.

The Syrian child's mother could not breastfeedthe child because she was also suffering from severe malnutrition, so she took her to see doctors last week at aclinic inHamouria in Syria's EasternGhouta region.

But it was too late. The treatment failed and Sahardied on Sunday, just one day after these shocking photos of her bony frame and sunken face were taken by Agence France Press photographerAmer Almohibany.

She weighed 4.4 pounds.

Saharis one of two children to die in as many months of malnutritionin the rebel-held eastern suburbs of the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to opposition activists.

And more children will follow, if the region remains cut off from humanitarian aid, warns one doctor on the ground.

"I see the increase in thenumber ofchildren who are suffering from malnutrition,"Dr. Hamza Hassan told As It Happens host Carol Off from his home inErbin, EasternGhouta.

I feel afraid about my family, about my children.- Dr. Hamza Hassan , Syrian physician

The region, which comprises several rebel-held Damascus suburbs, has been under siege for four years.

Conditions have worsened since May, after government forces seized theQabounandBarzehneighbourhoods in northeast Damascus. The two neighbourhoods were hubs for smuggling supplies into theGhoutaregion through tunnels.

Hassan, who works for theSyrian American Medical Society, estimates there are 1,000 children with moderate to severe malnutrition in EasternGhouta,which has a population of 356,000.

According to the Guardian, some 3.5 million people in Syria still live in besieged or hard-to-reach areas.

International aid organizations have been sending food toGhouta,but the last convoy entered more than a month ago.

RamiAbdurrahmanof the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the main reason behind the suffering is the government siege, adding that there are businesspeople who are taking advantage of the food shortage.

AhmadKhansour, aGhouta-basedopposition activist, told The Associated Press that high prices are far beyond people's reach, saying that a kilogram of sugar is selling for up to $12, while a kilogram of rice sells for nearly $5. He said an averagefamily's monthly income is about $100.

Hassan said that some families are subsiding on small vegetable patches they've cultivated themselves, but, as winter approaches, that lifeline will soon be severed.

"I feel afraid about my family, about my children," hesaid of his four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. "I want the safety for them. I want to give them their complete food."

• AS IT HAPPENS:Syriansfight with weird radio
• AS IT HAPPENS:Syrian ecapes war, dies in London fire

He's calling on the United Nations and international aid organizations to fight to reopen the humanitarian corridors that were previously used to deliver aid to civilians.

At the very least, he said, they should come and bear witness tohorrorsunfolding so close to the capital.

"Ghouta's people didn't see the UN officials inside Ghouta," he said. "I ask them to enter inside Ghouta and see the children dying."

With files from Associated Press