2024-03-11 15:41:28
Extending the passage of humanitarian aid from northern Syria “does not mean relief”
In front of a simple tent in the city of Azaz, in the northern countryside of Aleppo, retired teacher Muhammad Hashem walked past the mobile clinic that had just arrived to serve the residents of the small camp.
The clinic, run by the Independent Doctors Association (IDA), whose projects are supported by cross-border aid, is one of the few remaining services reaching populations displaced by the war and earthquake.
David Cardin, Deputy United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syrian Crisis (AFP)
On March 6, a UN official warned that the United Nations was facing difficulties in raising sufficient funds for the aid program for Syria, during a visit to this country as the thirteenth anniversary of the outbreak of the Syrian conflict approached.
“We are not receiving particularly good signals about funding possibilities this year,” David Cardin, deputy UN regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syrian crisis, told Agence France-Presse. He said during a visit to northwestern Syria, which is controlled by opposition factions, that “the financial support climate and financing environment have become more difficult” as the thirteenth anniversary of the conflict approaches later this month.
Cardin added that insufficient funding will affect the delivery of aid, and “the ability of the United Nations and its partners to provide services to the most affected people.”
Humanitarian aid through northern Syria crossings is limited to providing basic services (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Last February, the Syrian government agreed to extend the mandate granted to the United Nations to deliver aid to opposition-controlled areas in the northwest of the country, through two border crossings with Turkey, to deliver aid to those affected by the earthquake for another three months, ending on May 13 next. .
This is the fourth time that Damascus has agreed to extend the transfer of aid from the Bab al-Salam and al-Rai crossings, for victims of the earthquake that occurred on February 6, 2023.
Muhammad Hashem can barely provide for his family in a camp in Azaz, northwestern Syria (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Services decline
Retired teacher Muhammad does not know anything about extending the decisions to pass aid, which fell at the mercy of political tensions between the countries intervening in the Syrian war, except that “aid has declined” and is no longer sufficient to support his family of four people.
“Previously, services were sufficient to help us,” Muhammad, 52 years old, told Asharq Al-Awsat, speaking about the difficulties of obtaining work after being displaced ten years ago from his village in the southern countryside of Aleppo, while suffering from a “disc” in his back that prevents him from working. Physical effort, in addition to losing the necessary documents to continue the academic path.
Two years ago, services declined. They no longer meet only the general needs of the camp residents, such as medical care and the provision of drinking water, while the residents do not receive the food or livelihood support they need. “I have two sick daughters,” Muhammad says, “but I do not have the money to buy medicine for them. We live a miserable life and give up everything we cannot afford.”
The scarce services, which stopped meeting a third of the needs required by the United Nations last year, were also threatening to stop, which means a “disaster” for those in need of assistance in the region, who number 4.1 million people out of 4.55 million residing in the northwest.
Cross-border aid, with or without permission
The northwestern region of Syria, which includes the northern Aleppo countryside and Idlib with some villages from the western Aleppo countryside, depends on humanitarian aid arriving across the border, which was crossing with the approval of the Security Council without the need for the permission of the authorities in Damascus, through four crossings from Jordan, Iraq and Turkey since In 2014. However, Russia’s use of its veto in the Security Council led to the reduction of the extension period from one year to six months, and the number of crossings from four to one, the “Bab al-Hawa” crossing in Idlib, since 2020.
Bab al-Salam border crossing between Türkiye and Syria (Reuters)
Since then, the decision faced every extension of controversy and Russian resistance until it was blocked in July 2023, and the passage of aid through “Bab al-Hawa” was continued only with special permission from Damascus to help the region outside its control after the earthquake disaster in February of 2023, which The reason was also the resumption of the passage of aid through “Bab al-Salama” linking the northern Aleppo countryside with Turkey, in addition to the “Al-Rai” crossing in the same region. On February 12, the most recent extension was for a period of only three months.
Extension does not guarantee assistance
Limiting the decision to extend cross-border aid to only three months does not allow for the provision of aid and the implementation of the necessary humanitarian projects in the region, according to the medical director of the Waseem Moaz Academic Teaching Hospital in Azaz, Dr. Abdul Hanan Joja.
Medical Director of Waseem Moaz Teaching Hospital (Middle East)
Implementing humanitarian projects requires months of planning and coordination with supporting agencies, and limiting the opening of crossings to a few months means losing important projects for the region. “All humanitarian sectors depend on aid.”
Dr. Abdel Hanan adds: “Any halt, failure, or delay in delivering it is very harmful.”
United Nations data shows that 889 trucks passed through the “Bab al-Salama” crossing, and 100 through the “Al-Rai” crossing, during the past year, but the number of trucks arriving during the first month of the current year was only one from the “Bab al-Salama” crossing and no truck through “Al-Rai.” .
A doctor in a clinic that provides free aid to those in need (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Regarding the needs for recovery from the earthquake, Dr. Abdel Hanan finds it necessary to extend aid for more years and not just months, noting that this is due to the disaster that struck the region, which is already suffering from the effects of the war, which has reached its thirteenth year, with multiple damages to the population.
Abdel Hanan continues: “We need two, three or four years to get rid of the major effects of the earthquake. Families who lost their breadwinners need ten years to recover.”
David Carden, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syrian Crisis, had told Asharq Al-Awsat, after communicating with the regional office, before his recent visit to the region, that the passage of aid through the last two crossings is an essential continuation of the aid passing through the “Bab al-Hawa” crossing, citing the 20th anniversary of Percent of relief trucks and 45 percent of UN delegations last year went through them to the northwest.
The passage of aid through the crossings of the northern Aleppo countryside allowed “quick and direct” access to the areas affected by the earthquake, according to Cardin, adding that weak funding for the humanitarian response hinders the improvement of the situation in the region, “and will have a cost on the humanitarian level in the end.”
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