BEIRUT » The international aid group Doctors Without Borders says people in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya are starving and criticized the government for blocking medical supplies.

Madaya is one of the last rebel-held areas between Damascus and the Lebanese border.

Since July, the town has been under siege by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and allied Hezbollah fighters.

Eighteen people have died in Madaya in the past two weeks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An estimated 400 people who urgently need medical help are waiting to get out of Madaya, according to the Britain-based group.

Doctors Without Borders said that according to health workers in Madaya, 16 people have died since the delivery of aid in three convoys earlier this month, and warned that dozens more are in “danger of death” because of malnutrition.

“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,” Brice de le Vingne, the group’s director of operations, said in a statement.

It said there are about 320 cases of malnutrition in the town of 20,000 people, of which 33 are severe.

According to estimates by the international medical charity, 1.5 to 2 million people are trapped in sieges imposed by the Syrian government and its allies, and rebel groups.

Medical evacuations are prevented at those places and the delivery of drugs and food are repeatedly blocked at checkpoints.

“As a result, medical teams in these areas simply cannot cope with the demands they face,” Doctors Without Borders said. “The situation in Madaya is even worse as there are no doctors present in the town.”

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©2016 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)