Syrian president agrees to expand UN aid access from Turkey to help earthquake victims
Geraint Vincent, in Adana, reports on the urgent efforts to get humanitarian aid to Syria and Turkey
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to open two new crossing points from Turkey to the country’s rebel-held northwest to deliver desperately needed aid and equipment to help millions of earthquake victims, the United Nations said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the agreement by the Syrian leader to open crossing points at Bab Al-Salam and Al Raée for an initial period of three months.
Currently, the UN has only been allowed to deliver aid to the north-west Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab Al-Hawa, at Syrian ally Russia’s insistence.
The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between Assad and UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who spent the weekend viewing the devastation caused by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ravaged southern Turkey and north-western Syria.
Mr Guterres’ official announcement came during a closed meeting of the UN Security Council where diplomats said Mr Griffiths announced Assad’s agreement to open the two new crossings during a virtual briefing.
While some aid has been reaching government-held areas impacted by the earthquake, other areas in the rebel-held northwest have received little assistance.
"As the toll of the Feb. 6 earthquake continues to mount, delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency," Mr Guterres said. "Opening these crossing points - along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs - will allow more aid to go in, faster," he added.
The total death toll in Syria, a country in the midst of a bloody civil war, has reached 5,714, while, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, the Turkish toll now exceeds 31,643.
The UN has been under intense pressure to get more aid and heavy equipment into Syria’s rebel-held northwest since the earthquake struck a week ago, with survivors lacking the means to dig for other survivors and the death toll mounting.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric described the difficulties of operating during Syria’s 12-year war. To criticism that the UN hadn’t responded quickly enough to the earthquake, he said some aid is getting into the north-west, pointing to 58 trucks that arrived through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing.
But he stressed that the UN doesn’t have heavy equipment or search and rescue teams, “so the international community as a whole needs to step up to get that aid where it is needed.”
In a statement, Mr Guterres said that with the rising death toll “delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency.” “Opening these crossing points — along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs — will allow more aid to go in, faster,” the UN chief added.
The earthquake affected ten provinces in Turkey that are home to some 13.5 million people, as well as a large area in northwest Syria that is home to millions.
Quake survivors face difficult conditions amid wrecked cities, with many sleeping outdoors in freezing weather and much of the region's water system not working.
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