LACK OF AID IN NORTHERN SYRIA
The UN has decried the failure to ship desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria.
A convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Türkiye, but the UN’s relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed.
“We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,” Griffiths said on Twitter.
Assessing the damage in southern Türkiye on Saturday, when the toll stood at 28,000, Griffiths said he expected the figure to “double or more” as chances of finding survivors fade with every passing day.
Supplies have been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under Western sanctions.
But a 10-truck UN convoy crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent, carrying shelter kits, plastic sheeting, rope, blankets, mattresses and carpets.
Bab al-Hawa is the only point for international aid to reach people in rebel-held areas of Syria after nearly 12 years of civil war after other crossings were closed under pressure from China and Russia.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) met Assad in Damascus on Sunday and said the Syrian leader had voiced readiness for more border crossings to help bring aid into the rebel-held northwest.
“He was open to considering additional cross-border access points for this emergency,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
CONFLICT, COVID-19, CHOLERA, QUAKE
“The compounding crises of conflict, COVID-19, cholera, economic decline and now the earthquake have taken an unbearable toll,” Tedros said a day after visiting Aleppo.
While Damascus had given the all-clear for cross-line aid convoys to go ahead from government areas, Tedros said the WHO was still waiting for a green light from rebel-held areas before going in.
Assad looked forward to further “efficient cooperation” with the UN agency to improve the shortage in supplies, equipment and medicines, his presidency said.
He had also thanked the United Arab Emirates for providing “huge relief and humanitarian aid”, with pledges of tens of millions of dollars.
But in Türkiye security concerns prompted the suspension of some rescue operations, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake, according to state media.
An Israeli emergency relief organisation said Sunday it had suspended its earthquake rescue operation in Türkiye and returned home because of a “significant” security threat to its staff.
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