Turkey-Syria quake: UN warns of aid failure in Syria as death toll nears 30,000

Aid has been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain controlled by rebels

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border aid points between Turkey and Syria

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People ride their motorcycles past a destroyed building as search and rescue operations continue in the regime-controlled town of Jableh in the province of Latakia, northwest of the Syrian capital, on February 12. Photo: AFP

A. Christian van GorderandAgence France-Presse

Published: 9:52pm, 12 Feb 2023

The United Nations denounced Sunday a failure to get desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria, while warning that the death toll of nearly 30,000 from an earthquake that also devastated Turkey could at least double.

A UN convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but the agency’s relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed.

“We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,” Griffiths said on Twitter.

“My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can.”

Aid has been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under Western sanctions.

The UN convoy of 10 trucks crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent, carrying shelter kits including plastic sheeting, ropes and screws and nails, as well as blankets, mattresses and carpets.

Tens of thousands of rescuers continued to scour flattened neighbourhoods in freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid.