Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect of recent reports that aid convoys are being blocked from entering the Eastern Ghouta region in Syria on the humanitarian situation in that region.

DFID’s humanitarian partners are on the ground in Eastern Ghouta providing life-saving healthcare and food. However, the Assad regime is besieging the area, preventing the delivery of new supplies. This is leading to a deterioration in already dire humanitarian conditions, with reports of growing food shortages and cases of acute malnutrition. We are using our position on the UN Security Council, and in the International Syria Support Group, to press the regime and its backers to allow unfettered access so that aid can reach those in desperate need.