A senior UN official has said that millions of Syrians in the northwest of the country will face a humanitarian catastrophe if the United Nations does not succeed in extending humanitarian relief operations across the border next month.
The entry of aid across the border with Turkey last year was limited to one port after Russia and China objected to renewing transit through other ports.
“There will be a catastrophe if the Security Council resolution is not extended,” said Mark Cutts, the deputy regional coordinator for humanitarian affairs on the Syrian file. “People will suffer.”
“We expect the council to put the needs of civilians first,” Cutts told Reuters. “In northwest Syria, some of the most needy people in the world are.”
Currently, about 1,000 United Nations trucks cross into Syria per month to deliver food, medical supplies and humanitarian aid through Bab al-Hawa, the only open port, in an attempt to meet the needs of four out of five people in northwest Syria.
“This is their lifeline,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield told reporters during a visit to the region, adding, “For a year and a half, some members of the Security Council were shamefully able to close two other crossings into Syria.”
“Bab al-Hawa is really all that is left,” she said. “If it is closed, this will be unjustified cruelty.”
After announcing an additional $240 million in aid to the Syrians and the countries hosting them, Thomas Greenfield said she also wanted to work with Russia to “find ways to deliver aid across the lines of contact with areas under the control of the Syrian government.”
Source: Reuters