BEIRUT – Desperation for food is growing in parts of Syria, where fist fights or dashes across the civil war front lines have become part of the daily struggle to secure a loaf of bread. Conditions are especially dire in the northern city of Aleppo, where civilians enduring incessant clashes and air raids in rebel-held districts say hunger is a new threat to survival in the 20-month-old revolt against President Bashar Al-Assad. “I went out yesterday and could not get any bread. If only the problem was just lack of food - there is also a huge shortage of fuel, which the bakeries need to run,” said Ahmed, a resident of the battle-scarred Salaheddine district. “A few days ago, the bakery workers had no fuel so they tried to sell off packets of flour,” he said. “People started getting into fist fights over the flour. Some days, rebels have to fire in the air to stop the fighting.” With rebels closing in on Damascus, and Western and Arab states endorsing a new opposition coalition, Syria appears near a critical point in the conflict. A top diplomat in Russia, one of Assad's closest allies, acknowledged on Thursday that the Syrian leader's foes were gaining ground and might win. But violence is still taking a terrible toll, with daily death tolls usually exceeding 100 and sometimes 200 in recent weeks. More than 40,000 have already died in the struggle. The World Food Program (WFP) says as many as a million people may go hungry this winter, as worsening security conditions make it harder to reach conflict zones. People In Need (PIN), a Czech group working in northern Syria, says the crisis may deepen if no other international aid group can consistently provide relief in the area. PIN estimates that only 1 to 2 million people remain of Aleppo's original 4 million inhabitants. Hundreds of thousands may be in need in Aleppo alone, said PIN's Michal Przedlacki. “It was bad when I started in Aleppo a month ago, but that has been nothing like the past week. I have watched the situation visibly worsen – more people look thin, you can see the worry in their faces,” he told Reuters by Skype. With winter's arrival, the outlook is increasingly bleak in Syria's war zones, particularly rebel-held areas where residents say state-subsidised flour and fuel are not coming through. More than 2.5 million people have fled their homes to safer areas within Syria, while more than half a million have registered as refugees abroad. Many more Syrians are without work and often have to decide between buying heating fuel or food. Some families chop up trees or even furniture for firewood, residents say. – Reuters
