(FILES) - A file handout picture released by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) shows a relief convoy carrying medical items having a stopover 10 km from Syrian cities of Zabadani and Madaya, some 50 km northwest of Damascus, on October 18, 2015. Syria's government gave permission on January 7, 2016 for UN aid deliveries to three besieged towns, including Madaya near Damascus where residents say people are starving to death. AFP PHOTO / ICRC / HO

A convoy of dozens of aid trucks departed from Damascus on Thursday on their way to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, the second delivery there this week, a humanitarian official and a Reuters witness said.

A spokesman for International Committee of the Red Cross said 44 aid trucks were heading to Madaya, where 40,000 people have been besieged by pro-Syrian government forces for months.

Twenty-one others were heading to two Shi’ite villages, al-Foua and Kefraya, surrounded by rebels in the northwest, some 300 km (200 miles) from Madaya.

Aid was also delivered to al-Foua and Kefraya on Monday.

A U.N. official told Reuters on Monday that U.N. and relief agency workers saw starving people in two besieged Syrian areas where aid deliveries were made on Monday.

Local doctors say some have starved to death in Madaya.

Opposition activists say dozens have died.