Due to Turkish violations, Syrian refugees terrified by UN aid ban
Millions of Syrians are desperately waiting for UN aid to enter their country amid fears that if Turkey invades new areas in northern Syria, the flow could be halted, and fears that Russia could use its veto to block cross-border aid.
The U.S. website Monitor confirmed that U.N. humanitarian aid trucks are queuing up among olive trees on the road connecting Turkey’s Hatay province to northwestern Syria, waiting to enter the Bab Al-Hawa crossing, the last crossing allowing U.N. aid to flow into Idleb, controlled by pro-Turkish extremists. The Bab Al-Hawa crossing could be closed on July 10 when the U.N. resolution on cross-border aid ends in Syria, which could worsen the suffering of more than 4 million people living in displacement camps in northwest Syria, in addition to fears of a new Turkish invasion of northern Syria.
In a joint statement issued on 13 June, a group of Syrian NGOs warned of the danger of Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council over the decision to extend humanitarian access to northwest Syria, amid a growing social crisis in the region as the purchasing power of civilians has declined. On 20 June, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield told a UN briefing on the humanitarian situation in Syria that the extension of the current mandate of the aid mechanism through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing was “a decision of life or death,” Mark Katz, UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, told Reuters on 29 June: People living in northwest Syria “could die from malnutrition or water shortages if Russia vetoes the UN mandate for cross-border aid or Turkey decides to ignite a new war front in northern Syria.”
Abu Mohammed, a pseudonym, is one of the managers of al-Ghab camp for displaced people in rural Idleb: “The camp is home to more than 300 families, all of whom live mainly on UN aid, and if the Bab Al-Hawa crossing is closed, a major disaster will ensue.”
Yousef Hammoud, a displaced person from Rif Idlib who supports a family living in al-Ghab camp, said: If the decision to close the crossing comes true, it will be a death sentence, and my family and I will lose the source of bread, water, food and medicine, he said, adding that the families will be completely besieged, adding that after the citizens fled their homes and lost their children and grandchildren, Iran, Russia and Turkey are now seeking to deprive them of their most basic rights. “I’m living on the aid we get and I have young children. I can’t force myself to accept the fact that my wife will have to work while I sit idly by. If the border crossing really closes, my wife and children will starve to death.”
The Coordinators of the Syrian Response, an Idleb-based humanitarian NGO helping displaced people in northwest Syria, said in a statement on its Facebook page on 13 June: “More than 4.3 million civilians, including 1.5 million people living in camps in northwest Syria, who remain silent, are terrified that aid has stopped, and some 800 trucks are providing humanitarian assistance to more than 4 million people in northwest Syria per month, according to the UN , more than 80 percent of the population in northwest Syria is dependent on this aid mechanism.”
