After the devastating earthquake, the first aid convoy entered the areas outside the control of Damascus in northern Syria, according to an official at the border crossing between Syria and Turkey and Agence France-Presse.
“The first aid convoy from the United Nations entered today, four days after the earthquake,” said the media official at Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and Syria, noting that it was expected to arrive before the disaster.
“It can be considered an initial response from the United Nations, and it will be followed, God willing, according to what we were promised, by larger convoys to help our afflicted people,” Alloush was quoted as saying by the French Press Agency.
Meanwhile, an AFP correspondent at the crossing reported that a convoy of only six trucks has passed into Syria, mainly containing tent supplies and cleaning tools.
The International Organization for Migration, affiliated with the United Nations, announced that the convoy includes blankets, mattresses, other shelter needs, and basic relief items, including solar-powered lamps.
More than four million people live in areas outside the control of the Syrian government in Idlib governorate and the neighboring northern countryside of Aleppo, a large part of whom are displaced.
Humanitarian aid destined for northwestern Syria is usually transported from Turkey through Bab al-Hawa, the only crossing point guaranteed by a Security Council resolution on cross-border aid. However, the roads leading to the crossing were damaged by the earthquake, which temporarily affected the ability of the United Nations to use it.
The United Nations Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, announced that part of the aid will enter Thursday through the Bab al-Hawa crossing into Syria. “We got guarantees that we can pass the first humanitarian aid” through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, he said in Geneva, calling for “non-politicization” of aid.
“The destruction in Aleppo, Homs, Lattakia and in other areas and in the countryside of these governorates is massive, but we also know that the destruction in the northwest of the country is also massive, and we have to get there in order to assess it,” said the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Syria, Mustafa bin Al-Malih, on Wednesday.