Earthquake: humanitarian aid is just beginning to arrive in northern Syria
After the earthquake, the city of Jandaris in the Afrin region of northern Syria is devastated on February 9, 2023. © Khalil Ashawi / REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
4 mins
Five days after the earthquake, Washington has just announced that it is releasing 85 million dollars to local partners in Syria, because the American government refuses any contact with the regime of Bashar el-Assad.
However, at the UN, we are asking not to politicize humanitarian aid.
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With our correspondent in New York,
Carrie Nooten
The head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, was very clear: given the scale of the disaster and the needs, no sanction can interfere with the aid to the population.
However, the US Treasury Department has announced the temporary lifting of certain sanctions in connection with Syria, hoping that aid can be delivered as quickly as possible to the affected populations.
This measure “
authorizes for 180 days all transactions related to the assistance to the victims of the earthquake which would otherwise be prohibited
” by the sanctions against Syria.
For their part, the French authorities have insisted on confirming that they are also providing their support to the Syrians, even if no dialogue with Damascus has been established.
“
We are setting up emergency aid for the Syrian population amounting to 12
million euros, in conjunction with non-governmental organizations working directly for the benefit of the population and with the United Nations, in the all the regions affected by the earthquake
,
”
said François Delmas, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Martin Griffiths, right-hand man to Antonio Guterres' humanitarian, was sent directly to the area;
he arrived this Friday morning and should go to Aleppo and Damascus in particular.
And if he cannot confide his objectives, he should certainly plead for the opening of additional crossing points for aid from the Syrian government… What Ankara also demands.
Because since the establishment of cross-border aid to Syrians since 2014, three of the four crossing points have been closed under pressure from Russia in the Security Council and in the region of Idlib, in the north-west of Syria, 4 million people survive only thanks to this humanitarian aid.
► To read also: Witnesses to News - Earthquake in Turkey: how RFI's special envoys work
A first convoy crosses the border
A first convoy of six trucks, provided for in this regular UN distribution, also crossed the Bab al-Hawa border on Thursday, making blankets, solar lamps and hygiene kits for 5,000 people, the first supplies received since the earthquake.
But they carried no water or food.
Aleppo, a city devastated by years of war, was hit hard by the earthquake.
“
The city is totally devastated.
Hundreds of houses were destroyed.
Not to mention the archaeological sites, the citadel and the minaret of Saladin
, says Elia Kajamini, resident of the city, to RFI.
My house was a little damaged, but with my wife and our daughter, we are well
[...]
Our hospitals are full to bursting.
»
"
It's a country that has been at war for almost twelve years, with already extremely limited infrastructure and a response that already in normal times is very limited: no electricity, very little running water, very limited means
, recalls Myriam Abord-Hugon, director of Handicap International in Syria, coordinating the NGO's operations from neighboring Jordan.
So inevitably, the response to northwest Syria is for us more important in a way than the one that will be done for Turkey, which can already be managed by the country.
»
An earthquake survivor tries to keep warm by a fire on February 8 in Aleppo, Syria.
© FIRAS MAKDESI / REUTERS
Important needs
On the spot in one of the sectors controlled by the regime, since Tuesday February 7, Vincent Gelot, head of the Lebanon/Syria office of the Œuvre d'Orient, describes the situation: "
You should know that in Aleppo, with the war and the bombings, all the buildings were weakened.
So there, with the earthquake, we have more and more buildings being evacuated by the authorities, so we find ourselves with thousands of people in churches, parish halls, mosques, schools, in very harsh.
»
For him, the most serious is the lack of humanitarian aid, even if he praises the resilience of the inhabitants of Aleppo: “
The Aleppo during the war, they are very reactive, they were used to managing.
Local associations quickly mobilized.
They are admirable at this level.
But hey, we're still overwhelmed by the extent of the needs
: blankets, mattresses, milk for the children, medicine and then hot meals, sandwiches, stuff like that.
»
► To read also: Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: in the face of the outpouring of solidarity, online scams intensify
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Syria
UN
Humanitarian
Natural disasters
Earthquake
Bashar al-Assad