Dispute with Damascus over who controls aid hinders efforts to get supplies into rebel-held north
Syria was accused of playing politics with aid after the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said his country should be responsible for the delivery of all aid intoThe dispute over the control of the aid – along with the weather, destroyed roads and closed crossing points – is hampering aid efforts into northern Syria, which is held by rebel groups.
Turkish vice-president, Fuat Oktay, said 3,294 search and rescue personnel had reached Turkey from abroad, adding: “Over 70 countries have made requests, 14 of them are actually in the field.” The EU said it had mobilised 27 search and rescue and medical teams, more than 1,150 rescue workers and 70 search and rescue dogs from 19 European countries.
The government in Damascus allows aid to enter the region through only one border crossing. It has been resistant to opening up aid into northern areas because it regards the aid as undermining Syrian sovereignty and reducing its chances of winning back control of the region.“The areas worst affected by the earthquake inside Syria look to be run by the Turkish-controlled opposition and not by the Syrian government,” said Mark Lowcock, the former head of UN humanitarian affairs.
More than 1,400 people have died in Syria as a result of the earthquake, according to Damascus and authorities in the north-west part of the country controlled by anti-regime forces. He added: “The people of Syria need humanitarian access. NGO actors, these organisations, many of whom have been active in parts of Syria over the course of a dozen years now, need to have access to be able to go back and forth across the border, to deliver humanitarian assistance.”
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