The head of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, warned this week that the UN impasse over a border crossing with the last opposition-held enclave in Syria puts the 4.1 million Syrians there at risk.
Miliband’s remarks came more than two weeks after the UN Security Council failed to renew the mandate for the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey, which provides aid to the Syrians in the enclave.
The vast majority of people in northwest Syria live in poverty and depend on aid to survive. The crisis was exacerbated by the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, in February.
The earthquake has killed more than 50,000 people, including more than 6,000 in Syria, according to the United Nations. It also caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands.
“The people of northwest Syria cannot bear a new wave of suffering, after they lived through the shock of the earthquake,” Miliband told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday.
He urged the Security Council to “do its job” and resume the humanitarian border crossing.
Earlier in July, the council failed to adopt one of two competing resolutions regarding the crossing.
Russia, a prominent ally of the Syrian government in Damascus, vetoed a Swiss-Brazilian decision backed by Western countries to renew permission for aid transit through Bab al-Hawa for six months. Moscow’s draft resolution with additional requirements, including increased aid deliveries to the opposition enclave via Damascus, received only the support of China.
The stalemate also comes as donor fatigue has led to aid cuts to both northwest Syria and neighboring countries hosting millions of Syrian refugees who have fled the ongoing conflict, now in its 13th year.
The head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, opened the “al-Rai” and “Bab al-Salama” crossings to increase the flow of aid from Turkey to the earthquake victims. The United Nations says about 85 percent of its aid to northwestern Syria passes through Bab al-Hawa, a more efficient route.
For now, Miliband said, the IRC is trying to cope by using other crossings and finding other ways to get aid into the enclave.
“Our view is that interference with the humanitarian crossing poses a serious threat to the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian aid,” he explained.
Moreover, the United States said on Monday that it had joined major donors in demanding that the United Nations be able to independently deliver aid through Bab al-Hawa to all who need it, rejecting the conditions set by Syria and backed by its ally Russia for aid delivery.
The Security Council initially authorized aid deliveries, in 2014, from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan through four border crossing points to opposition-held areas of Syria.
However, Russia, with Chinese support, has succeeded over the years in applying pressure to reduce authorized crossings to Bab al-Hawa only, with the mandate from one year to six months.
Moscow claims that extremist groups in Idlib governorate, northwest of the country, are receiving aid and preventing them from reaching needy families. According to these allegations, Russia and China called for all aid to be channeled through Damascus.
But Syrians in the northwest enclave, as well as Western countries critical of Assad, say they are skeptical of the endeavor.
“There is a great danger for people in need in northwest Syria. It is very important that they are not forgotten,” Miliband said.
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2023-07-29 00:50:13
