UN plans food airdrop in Syria

Civilians carry their undamaged furniture, clothes and food salvaged from their homes that were destroyed during clashes between the Sunni-dominated Free Syrian Army and soldiers loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Assad in the countryside of Damascus, Syria. (AP PHOTO)

UNITED NATIONS — As images and reports of starvation in besieged Syrian communities drew an international outcry and two rare aid convoys this month, an urgent question arose: Why not drop food and other needed supplies by air?

Humanitarian access is a key issue as the United Nations tries to get Syrian parties to peace talks tentatively set for Monday. And it’s the focus of a pledging conference on February 4 in London, with the leaders of countries including Germany and Iran expected to attend.

Almost five years after Syria’s civil war began, the UN says more than 393,000 people are besieged. Food aid reached less than 1 percent of them last year. About 181,000 are besieged by Syria’s government.

Aid airdrops in Syria are possible to do, the US Air Force secretary noted last week. “If we’re asked to do it, we have the assets, we have the people, we know how to do airdrops,” Deborah Lee James told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Russia, the Syrian government’s strongest ally, this month announced airdrops to the city of Deir el-Zour, where government-held areas are blockaded by Islamic State militants and an estimated 200,000 people are besieged.

The UN also has the capacity; the World Food Program has made airdrops to hard-to-reach areas in other countries. And a series of UN Security Council resolutions since early 2014 allows for aid deliveries without the permission of Syria’s government, though their effect on airdrops is not clear.

But while diplomats, aid workers and UN officials say they are exploring all options to reach besieged communities, they say airdrops face deep complications both political and logistical.