Foreign
HUMANITARIAN organisations on Wednesday expressed relief for the extension of UN aid for people in need in Syria by just six months.
After days of deadlock, the UN Security Council agreed on Tuesday to extend the authorisation for cross-border aid deliveries to suffering people in Syria by only six months, as demanded by Russia.
“It’s good news that we can continue the cross-border aid operation,” tweeted UN Deputy Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Syria Mark Cutts.
“Millions of lives depend on it,” he added
The aid organisation Care, on the other hand said it was “very disappointed” by the extension of only six months.
“In the midst of the pandemic, a severe economic crisis and increasingly scarce resources, millions of people are struggling to survive,’’ the secretary general of Care Germany, Karl-Otto Zentel, said.
“Now is the time for more, not less, humanitarian aid,’’ he added.
The mandate, which was set in 2014, expired on Sunday after Russia used its veto power late last week to block Western-backed Security Council resolutions to extend it by one year.
The aid deliveries flow through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey to Syria’s north-western Idlib region, where some 4.4 million people live, according to UN figures.
Genifer Fenton, spokeswoman of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, told dpa “as the special envoy recently noted to the Security Council, cross-line, cross-border, and early recovery are absolutely crucial to bring life-saving, and life-sustaining, humanitarian assistance to all parts of Syria.’’ (dpa/NAN)
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Tags: Genifer Fenton Karl-Otto Zentel Mark Cutts UN UN Security Council
