- Anna Foster
- BBC Middle East correspondent
8 julio 2022
Displaced Syrians living in Idlib have relied heavily on UN deliveries
Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution authorizing cross-border deliveries of vital aid to opposition-controlled northwestern Syria.
The closure of the last route from Turkey puts risk of starvation to more than three million people.
BBC correspondent Anna Foster has been following one of the latest convoys aid from the UN who were allowed to enter the country.
Umm Ali carefully boils a pot of water to prepare dinner for her seven children. feed the fire with scraps of cardboard and trash, whatever you can find to keep the flames burning. The food she prepares is small and basic, because in the Al-Sadaqah camp, in the countryside of Idlib, supplies are scarce.
“Every day the children go to the landfill to collect aluminum cans, nylon bags and iron. They sell them for a pittance that is barely enough to buy four packages of bread, our breakfast,” he explains.
Umm says she’s thankful for the food aid you get, but it’s not enough. Now those supplies they will stop coming altogether.
The UN says the number of Syrians in need of humanitarian aid is now higher than any other time of the 11 years that the civil war has lasted.
Umm Ali says her family couldn’t get by without international help
The combination of years of fighting, the covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine has devastated the economy from the country.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) reported that the cost of food has increased 800% in just two years.
The huge cross-border operationwhich was created in 2014, only exists thanks to a UN mandate that allows it to be carried out without the permission of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia.
It was scheduled to be renewed at a session of the Security Council in New York on the morning of Friday, July 7, but as the day progressed, time persistently fell behind.
In the early afternoon, the diplomats admitted that they would have to postpone the vote until the next day, which is a holiday due to the celebration of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha or festival of sacrifice.
In the end, there was two votes. The first was about a commitment drawn up by Norway and Ireland, which provided for the step to be extended for six months, and that it would be automatically renewed for another six unless a member decided to end the agreement. That proposal was vetoed by Russia.
Moscow then tabled an alternative proposal, a six-month extension that would require active renewal with a vote in January 2023. This was in turn vetoed by the UK, US and France.
devastating consequences
NGOs have been quick to respond, saying the result is devastating.
Tamer Kirolos, director of the response in Syria of Save the Childrenhas urged the Security Council to reconvene and reverse its decision.
“Make no mistake, the fact that the Council does not authorize this crossing again puts the lives of hundreds of thousands of childrenchildren who have known nothing but conflict and life in the camps,” he said.
And Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, executive director of Mercy Corps, said the policy had outpaced critical aid for vulnerable Syrians.
The Syrian regime has only provided a small amount.
“Today, the United Nations Security Council failed the people of the northwest syria. Millions of people are left in limbo, not knowing how they will receive life-saving aid as food prices rise, conflict and economic stagnation continue,” she said.
The UN manages aid transfers to the northwest of the country because it is outside the control of the Syrian governmentin the hands of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist alliance and Turkish-backed rebel groups.
The Syrian regime has provided only a small amount of what is known as “crossover” aid. That means it crosses front lines within a country, rather than across international borders.
This is what Russia has been pushing as a future solution. Moscow believes that the sovereignty of President Al Assad takes precedence and that the job of providing aid should be in Syrian hands.
However, the WFP food aid that has come through Damascus has fed fewer than 50,000 people. From the operations center at the crossing with Turkey, the UN and its partners support 1.4 million people.
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