The Guardian: Syrians are watching their crops burn. These crimes of starvation must end
Mohammad Kanfash, director of Damaan Humanitarian Organization, and Ali al-Jasem, consultant and researcher at the Center for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University

“…The Assad government has relentlessly used a ‘kneel or starve’ strategy during the war [in Syria] to reduce opposition-held urban enclaves to submission. This has involved sealing off besieged areas and denying access to food and other essentials including water, health care, electricity and gas, employment, and money. There have also been targeted attacks on bakeries, health facilities, markets, livelihoods, and agriculture. Humanitarian relief has been restricted or blocked and relief workers attacked. … [P]eople in Syria need immediate help. Many Syrian lives are believed to have been lost through starvation. The destruction of crops threaten more lives, a fear shared by the U.N. Syrians desperately need collective action. As well as accountability, they need machinery and vehicles so they are able to respond to emergencies and combat future fires [in food crop fields]. Without this support, and without the pursuit of justice, those who willfully destroy food, water sources, medicine, and other objects indispensable for life will be given a green light to continue the abuse. We can’t let this happen” (7/11).