“We warmly welcome the extension by the Government of Syria of permission to use the Bab al-Salama and al-Rai border crossings until 13 November,” said Eri Kaneko, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York.
A week after a devastating earthquake struck Syria and neighboring Turkey on the sixth of February, killing more than 55,000 people in the two countries, Damascus allowed the United Nations to use the two crossings to bring in humanitarian aid, until May 13.
This came after criticism from residents and local relief organizations about the slow pace of the United Nations in delivering aid through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey to the affected people in areas outside the control of Damascus.
After that, Damascus renewed allowing the entry of aid through the two crossings for a period of three months, ending on the 13th of this month.
The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, as saying that the decision “comes out of Syria’s keenness to promote stability (…) and to continue its efforts to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need in all Syrian regions.”
The two crossings are currently the only gate for aid to enter north and northwest Syria, after the failure of the UN Security Council last month to renew the mechanism for bringing aid through the Bab al-Hawa crossing (Idlib), which is the main artery supplying millions of people in northwestern Syria with vital aid.
Moscow, the most prominent backer of Damascus, used the right of veto to prevent the extension of the mandate for nine months. However, during the same session, it presented an alternative proposal to extend it for six months, which was rejected by the Council, with the United Nations, humanitarian workers, and the majority of Council members insisting on the need to extend the mechanism for at least one year to allow for better organization of aid and ensure its delivery to those who deserve it.
A mechanism established in 2014 allowed the United Nations to deliver humanitarian aid to residents of areas outside government control in northwestern Syria without obtaining the approval of Damascus, which denounces the mechanism as a “violation” of its sovereignty.
About three million people, most of whom are displaced, live in areas under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra) in Idlib governorate, while 1.1 million reside in areas under the control of Syrian factions loyal to Ankara in northern Aleppo.
The majority of the residents of those areas crowded with camps for the displaced are in urgent need of assistance after years of conflict, economic collapse, disease outbreaks and increasing poverty exacerbated by the earthquake.
© 2023 AFP
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2023-08-08 16:34:08
