Medecins Sans Frontiere s: 'Another 16 starve to death' in Madaya

BBC, 30 JAN 2016- Another 16 people have starved to death in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya since UN aid convoys reached it earlier this month, according to charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.
The charity says there are also 33 people in danger of dying, according to.
Brice de la Vingne, MSF operations director, said the situation was 'totally unacceptable' when people 'should have been evacuated weeks ago'.
MSF previously said 30 people died of starvation in the town late last year.
Earlier in January, two emergency convoys of food and aid supplies were delivered to Madaya, where up to 40,000 people are believed to be trapped in appalling conditions.
The report comes as talks on ending the Syrian conflict take place in Geneva.
Negotiators representing Syria's main opposition groups are expected to arrive later on Saturday, after earlier boycotting the launch of the peace talks. Aid deliveries to besieged towns is a key demand from opposition groups.
The UN says some 400,000 people are trapped and in need of emergency assistance in 15 locations in Syria. 
Media captionSome people in Madaya said they were being forced to eat cats and grass
Madaya, in the mountains 25km (15 miles) north-west of Damascus, has been besieged for six months by government forces and their allies in Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.
Humanitarian agencies have called for hundreds of people to be evacuatedimmediately for medical treatment.
However, MSF said residents were continuing to die as government coalition forces prevented sick people leaving, and supplies of food and medical supplies getting in.
'It is totally unacceptable that people continue to die from starvation, and that critical medical cases remain in the town when they should have been evacuated weeks ago,' said MSF's director of operations.
The 16 recent deaths were reported by health workers supported by MSF in the town. No doctors are present to help, the organisation said.
Previously MSF said almost 30 people had died of starvation at a clinic in Madaya between 1 December and early January.
More than 40 lorries delivered aid to Madaya earlier this month - including rice, vegetable oil, flour, sugar and salt - for the first time since October.
The UN hopes to deliver further aid to Madaya .
What's happening in Syria?
More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in almost five years of conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a brutal civil war. 
Government forces are besieging various locations in the eastern Ghouta area, outside Damascus, as well as the capital's western suburb of Darayya and the nearby mountain towns of Zabadani and Madaya.