MadayaMom

Not good. The prices on both diesel and firewood have gone up.

My husband has been looking for wood to buy because we ran out of wooden furniture. But now the price is US $9 for the 30 lbs we need to stay warm every day.

The price of diesel, which is what we used to use to warm the house, per litre is $8.10. On Monday, it was $2.88 per litre.

This topic always brings out tears before words.

Three years ago I lost my father to a tragic accident. Four months and 10 days after that, we lost the one who had become like father to us, my eldest brother. He was killed in a car bomb.

I was pregnant at the time and thought I would miscarry I was so distressed.

Our tears barely dry from one wound and then another wound is inflicted.

This July, my youngest brother was killed. He had taken up arms when the siege was enforced but only in self defense, to protect the people of the town from the armed attacks we've been subjected to. The post he was guarding with his friends was shelled. His friends got hit. After he rescued the first one, when he got back to get his other friend, a sniper shot him dead.

The reality is my children have forgotten what it means to be calm and comforted since this inhumane campaign was launched against our town. They are petrified by any little sound they hear.

We were hoping that the UN security council was going to agree on lifting the siege this week but I was devastated when I learned that they weren't able to agree.

I was just asking if there was any news about the end of the siege or meetings that will bring a solution.

International aid groups are not as effective as they could be, in my opinion as a mother who has lived through this suffering, because they were not able to deliver aid at the right time. They were very late and that led to many people starving to death including women and children.