A United Nations (UN) official has warned that millions of people in Syria face a humanitarian crisis if the organisation fails to extend aid operations through the Bab al-Hawa crossing along the Syria-Turkey border. Bab al-Hawa is the only open border crossing that allows aid into Syria and its mandate is set to expire next month.
Last year, the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2533 allowing the delivery of critical aid, including food and medical supplies through the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwest Syria. However, due to opposition from Russia and China, the UNSC failed to extend the mandate of the remaining three border crossings—Bab al-Salama, Al-Yarubiah, and Al-Ramtha.
“It's going to be a disaster if the Security Council resolution is not extended. We know that people are really going to suffer,” UN aid official Mark Cutts told Reuters on Thursday. Cutts also added that he expects the Council to “put the needs of the civilians first.”
In 2020, Reliefweb reported that Bab al-Hawa “provides a lifeline” to Syria, as around 1000 trucks of aid shipments are transported into northwest Syria through the al-Hawa and al-Salama crossings. With the al-Salama crossing currently closed, Bab al-Hawa lacks the capacity to let through additional trucks, resulting in further delays of humanitarian aid.
In this respect, the US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced yesterday that America would provide “nearly $240 million in additional humanitarian funding for the people of Syria and for the communities that host them.” Greenfield, who is on an official visit to Turkey to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Syria, called on the UN to “bring food to starving children and protection to homeless families” and deliver vaccines to the war-ravaged country.
“We want the suffering to stop,” said Greenfield. “And that starts with the funding I’m announcing today, which comes from the US Agency for International Development [USAID].” She also mentioned the importance of Bab al-Hawa in providing aid to Syrians and criticised “some members [Russia and China] of the Security Council for shamefully closing” other crossings in Syria. “Bab al-Hawa is literally all that’s left,” said Greenfield. She further added that the US would work towards re-opening “the two other border crossings that were closed” to ensure that aid reaches the people of Syria, who have suffered the most in the decade-long conflict.
Since 2011, the brutal conflict in Syria has killed close to 400,000 people, forced more than five million to flee as refugees, and displaced another six million within the nation’s borders. United Nations (UN) estimates suggest that today there are more than 13 million people who require humanitarian assistance in Syria, along with 90% of all children in the country. More than half a million children under the age of five suffer from stunting as a result of chronic malnutrition, 12,000 have lost their lives or have been injured from the violence, 5,700 were recruited to fight, and nearly 2.45 million are out of school.