Aid convoys carrying food, medicine and blankets, leave the Syrian capital Damascus as they head to the besieged town of Madaya on January 11, 2015.

An aid convoy entered a besieged Syrian town on Monday where thousands are trapped and the United Nations says people are reported to have died of starvation.

Red Crescent trucks carrying food and medical supplies travelling with U.N. vehicles entered Madaya near the Lebanese border as part of an agreement between warring sides.

At least 10 people are said to have starved to death in the town and activists say some inhabitants have been reduced to eating leaves.

Another convoy simultaneously entered two Shi’ite villages, al Foua and Kefraya in the northwestern province of Idlib 300 km away, a U.N. source said.

Madaya is besieged by pro-Syrian government forces, while the two villages in Idlib province are encircled by rebels fighting the Syrian government.

Last month, at least 23 people died of starvation inside the town amid pleas for the fast delivery of aid.

The World Food Program and the International Committee for the Red Cross said they had loaded up a convoy of trucks filled with food and other relief supplies for Madaya but it has not yet left Damascus.

On Sunday, the World Food Program tweeted an image of supplies being loaded onto an aid convoy heading to the besieged town.

Blockades have been a common feature of the nearly five-year-old war that has killed an estimated 250,000 people.

Government forces have besieged rebel-held areas near Damascus for several years and more recently rebel groups have blockaded loyalist areas including two villages in Idlib province.

The fate of Madaya may be linked to those villages. The areas were all part of a local ceasefire agreement agreed in September but implementation has been halting.

The last aid delivery to Madaya, which happened in October, was synchronized with a similar delivery to the Shi’ite villages — al-Foua and Kefraya. Ali described the people of Madaya as hostages held as a bargaining chip for al-Foua and Kefraya.

Aid agencies were hoping for easier access to the area following the ceasefire deal concluded under U.N. supervision.

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