2 yıl önce

UN cross-border aid to Syria halts due to logistic difficulties after quake

Critical UN aid from Türkiye to northwest Syria is temporarily halted due to damage to roads by deadly earthquakes and it is unclear when it will resume, a UN spokesperson says.

AFP

At least 1,622 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the powerful earthquakes centred in southeastern Türkiye, according to figures compiled by the Syrian regime’s Health Ministry and Syrian Civil Defense.

The flow of critical UN aid from Türkiye to northwest Syria has temporarily halted due to damage to roads and other logistical issues related to the deadly earthquake that struck the two countries, a UN spokesperson has said.

Even before the quake struck in the early hours of Monday, the United Nations estimated that more than 4 million people in northwest Syria, many displaced by the war and living in camps, depended on cross-border aid.

Those needs have now increased, a top UN aid official said, making the hundreds of trucks worth of food, medical and other assistance that enter Syria via Türkiye each month all the more vital.

"Some roads are broken, some are inaccessible. There are logistical issues that need to be worked through," Madevi Sun-Suon, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), told Reuters.

"We don't have a clear picture of when it will resume," she said.

UPDATE: At least 1,602 people lost their lives in Syria:

- Opposition-controlled areas: 790 dead, according to White Helmets
- Regime-controlled areas: 812 people dead, according to regime media#TurkiyeQuakes pic.twitter.com/k80OS7sMB5
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) February 7, 2023

With a confirmed death toll in Syria already topping 1,600, rescue workers from across the frozen front lines of the country's 12-year civil war have said that hundreds more people likely remain under the rubble.

Sun-Suon said aid workers were also struggling with limited access to water and power as well as looking for their own colleagues and loved ones.

Aid already positioned within the northwest will likely be rapidly depleted, aid officials said.

"We have heard there are some supplies in the system for the next 3-5 days however our concern is that these will be exhausted rapidly," Kieren Barnes, country director for Mercy Corps Syria, told Reuters.

Noor Qormosh reports from Idlib on how winter weather is complicating rescue efforts in northwestern Syria after #TurkiyeQuakes pic.twitter.com/947OEtXvtt
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) February 7, 2023

"We will need to significantly increase resources for northwest Syria and ensure supply lines are clear for us to respond."

Meanwhile, Syria's Red Crescent said it was ready to deliver relief aid to all the country's regions, including opposition-held areas and urged the United Nations, which has long coordinated the aid and relief operations in opposition-held areas, to facilitate that.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies