UN slams delays in aid for Syria quake victims
The panel acknowledges that the UN, among other parties, is to blame for the delays in bringing critical relief to disaster-stricken Syrians.
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Members of the Algerian rescue team and Syrian army soldiers search for survivors at the site of a damaged building, in the aftermath of the earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, February 8, 2023. (Reuters)
The United Nations and other parties are to blame for delays in bringing humanitarian relief to Syrians following last month's devastating earthquakes, as per an UN-appointed commission of investigation.
The charges, which were made public on Monday, add to a rising chorus of condemnation of the global agency for its participation in the immediate aftermath of last month's earthquakes in Syria, which killed approximately 6,000 people.
It is worth noting that several Western countries mobilized rapidly to send aid and rescue workers to Turkey but excluded Syria and neglected it following the devastating earthquake.
As the catastrophe unfolds in front of the whole world's eyes in #Syria, one can't help but notice how the #West deliberately chose not to help the catastrophe-stricken country. pic.twitter.com/f5cOYM0JAB
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) February 7, 2023
Among the parties the UN pointed out was the Syrian government although it was the Turkish-backed, rebranded Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda in Syria), Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) terrorist organization that was holding up aid meant for Syria and sent in the wake of the devastating earthquake, as per a UN spokesperson.
As a matter of fact, Damascus expressed its readiness and willingness to send aid to the country's north, which is held by various armed groups and terrorist organizations, knowing that the North is largely under the control of the terrorist HTS group.
Read more: UN admits: 'We have failed the people in northwest Syria'
The independent three-member panel set up to investigate and record all violations of international law since March 2011 in Syria admitted that the actors failed to permit life-saving help via any accessible channel, particularly for rescue teams during the critical first week.
On his account, the Chair of the Commission Paulo Pinheiro said, “Though there were many acts of heroism amid the suffering, we also witnessed a wholesale failure by the international community, including the United Nations, to rapidly direct life-saving support to Syrians in the most dire need.”
The statement added that halting hostilities failed, thus impeding life-saving relief through any accessible path, leaving Syrians feeling "abandoned and neglected by those supposed to protect them, in the most desperate of circumstances."
“Many voices are rightly calling for an investigation and for accountability,” it stressed.
The UN believes that five million people in Syria's earthquake-affected region require basic shelter and non-food assistance.
In its report, the UN failed to mention the Israeli airstrikes on the country amid the ongoing dire situation, including hitting Aleppo Airport which was welcoming planes loaded with relief aid.
