UN aid will not reach Syria

Millions of Syrians risk losing access to lifesaving aid, including during the Covid-19 pandemic, if Russia vetoes reauthorizing the only remaining UN aid corridor from Turkey into opposition-held northwest Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations Security Council should reauthorize full cross-border operations into the region and authorize a resumption of aid flows from Iraq to northeast Syria when the Council’s current resolution expires on July 10, 2021.

The UN humanitarian chief has said that shutting down this gateway into northwest Syria, which is under the control of anti-government groups, would be “catastrophic.” Non-UN aid groups in northeast Syria, which is mostly under the control of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration, a quasi-autonomous authority, say they have been unable to bring in enough aid since the UN was forced to stop its cross-border operations between Iraq and Syria in January 2020. As of May 31, only 17,500 Covid-19 vaccine doses for healthcare workers and only limited other supplies to respond to the pandemic have reached the northeast from Syria’s capital, Damascus, and no aid reaches the northwest from there.

“Shutting down the only remaining UN lifeline into northwest Syria would cut off millions of people from aid and unleash a humanitarian calamity,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “The people of northwest Syria, and millions of others in the northeast, should receive help, including Covid-19 vaccines and other crucial healthcare supplies, through all possible routes.”

Between April 14 and May 6, Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 aid workers from 10 different international and local nongovernmental organizations operating or supporting operations in northwest and northeast Syria about the humanitarian situation there and the obstacles they faced in assisting people. Human Rights Watch sent questions on May 31 to the Syrian government, but as of June 10 had not received a reply.

UN Security Council (UNSC) negotiations on an extension of cross-border aid access to areas in northwest Syria are underway. But in February, Russia signaled its intention to shut down the final remaining crossing, through Bab al-Hawa, when it comes up for a Council vote ahead of the July 10 expiration.

_{Source & credit: HRW.org}

_{Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding on Unsplash}