Syria’s last cross-border aid lifeline must stay open, insist UN humanitarians

The imminent closure of the last cross-border aid lifeline to north-west Syria must be postponed beyond the 10 July deadline, UN humanitarians said on Friday, noting that no cross-line supplies had reached Idlib from Damascus in nearly a year.

The development follows an appeal by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the Security Council to continue to allow convoys to pass through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey for another year.

“A failure to extend the Council’s authorization would have devastating consequences”, he said on Wednesday, highlighting that cross-line aid assistance “at present levels” could not replace the quantities that were delivered cross-border.

Speaking in Geneva on Friday, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Tomson Phiri said that the renewal of the UN resolution allowing cross-border operation was critical, since “millions of lives are at stake”.

Mr. Phiri explained that 2.4 million people “depend entirely on cross-border assistance for their basic needs including food. The majority of these people are women and children, many of whom have been displaced multiple times.”

More than 1,000 trucks have transported food, medicine and other items through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing each month over the past year, as part of a wider UN humanitarian operation that is the biggest in the world.

Around $10 billion is needed to support people affected by the conflict, whether in the country or as refugees across the region.

Inside Syria, needs are massive and growing, however.

“Today, an estimated 12.4 million Syrians are food insecure and this amounts to nearly 60 per cent of the population who do not know what they will eat tomorrow. This is an increase of 4.5 million people in only one year,” said Mr. Phiri.

Those living in Idlib in Syria’s north-west – which is the last opposition stronghold after more than a decade of war – are among the most vulnerable.

“Of greatest concern today is north-west Syria, where nearly 30 per cent of the people WFP assists, live,” Mr. Phiri explained. “Similarly, 30 per cent of the food WFP ships into Syria is through the single remaining border crossing.”

The Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey is the last of four cross-border passages still open, after a 2014 UN Security Council resolution authorising humanitarian aid into opposition-held areas of Syria.

Spokesperson Christian Lindmeier from the World Health Organization (WHO) underscored the likely consequences for Idlib’s already weakened population if cross- border authorisation is not renewed: “It would not be possible to roll out reliable COVID vaccinations to the population and other campaigns to vaccinate children as well as other essential health activities including lifesaving care for chronic non-communicable diseases.”

“The COVID-19 response is heavily reliant on the UN including the vaccination roll-out,” he added. “The UN-supported COVAX mechanism is the only option for access to vaccines in the area, yet less than 0.58 per cent of the population has received one dose.”

The WHO spokesperson also insisted that cross-line convoys “even if deployed regularly would not replicate the size and scope of this (cross-border) operation. Despite significant continuing efforts by the UN, we have not yet managed to create the conditions to deploy the first cross-line convoy to north-west Syria and no cross-line convoys have crossed into north-west Syria from Damascus in the last 11 months.”

Securing enough food to eat inside Syria is a daily struggle, and families are now buying food on credit, WFP’s Mr. Phiri said.

“Food prices continue to rise and have increased by 247 per cent food price increase in the last year alone; families have exhausted their savings after years of conflict and are unable to afford basic meals.”

ends

STORY: Syria Cross-border Aid Appeal – WFP, WHO

TRT: 03 min 29s

SOURCE: UNTV CH

RESTRICTIONS: NONE

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / GERMAN

ASPECT RATIO: 16:9

DATELINE: 25 JUNE 2021 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST

1. Exterior wide shot, Palais des Nations flag alley, nations’ flags flying, a sunny day.
2. Wide shot, podium with speakers and large-screen TV showing external participant, in a near-empty Room XIV in line with COVID-19 distancing measures, side shot, Palais des Nations.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) — Tomson Phiri, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson: “The renewal of the UN resolution allowing cross-border operation is critical; millions of lives are at stake here; some 2.4 million people depend entirely on cross-border assistance for their basic needs including food. The majority of these people are women and children, many of whom have been displaced multiple times.”
4. Medium shot, podium with speakers, shot from below.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) — Tomson Phiri, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson: “Today, an estimated 12.4 million Syrians are food insecure and this amounts to nearly 60 per cent of the population who do not know what they will eat tomorrow. This is an increase of 4.5 million people in only one year.”
6. Close-up, journalist, masked and wearing listening device.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) — Tomson Phiri, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson: “Of greatest concern today is north-west Syria, where nearly 30 per cent of the people WFP assists, live. Similarly, 30 per cent of the food WFP ships into Syria is through this single remaining border crossing.”
8. Medium shot, journalist typing on laptop in background, blurred, with conference microphones in focus in foreground.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) — Christian Lindmeier, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson: “If cross-border authorisation is not renewed, it would not be possible to roll out reliable COVID vaccinations to the population and other campaigns to vaccinate children, as well as other essential health activities, including lifesaving care for chronic non-communicable diseases.”
10. Medium shot, participant masked wearing glasses.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) — Christian Lindmeier, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson: “Cross-line convoys, even if deployed regularly would not replicate the size and scope of this operation. Despite significant continuing efforts by the UN, we have not yet managed to create the conditions to deploy the first cross-line convoy to north-west Syria and no cross-line convoys have crossed into north-west Syria from Damascus in the last 11 months.”
12. Medium shot, participant sitting in front of laptop with headphones.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) — Christian Lindmeier, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson: “The COVID-19 response is heavily reliant on the UN including the vaccination roll-out. The UN-supported COVAX mechanism is the only option for access to vaccines in the area, yet less than 0.58 per cent of the population has received one dose.”
14. Medium-wide shot, podium speakers with large TV screen showing external participant.
15. SOUNDBITE (English) — Tomson Phiri, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson: “Food prices continue to rise and have increased by 247 per cent food price increase in the last year alone; families have exhausted their savings after years of conflict and are unable to afford basic meals.”
16. Medium shot, podium speaker partly obscured by TV tripod (blurred) in foreground.
17. Medium shot, laptop showing virtual participants’ names.
18. Wide shot, participant seated and masked, typing on laptop.
19. Medium shot, journalist, seated and masked, looking at laptop.
20. Medium shot, journalist, seated and masked, typing on laptop, profile.