White Helmets to Jusoor Post: Halt of UN aid to Northwest Syria doubles humanitarian needs for 4.8M people

The fate of delivering humanitarian aid to more than 4.8 million people in Northwest Syria is unknown after the UN Security Council failed on July 11 to adopt two resolutions of extending the cross-border aid delivery to the Syrian opposition from Turkey through the Bab Al Hawa border crossing.

The UN-brokered humanitarian delivery has been adopted since 2014, as every month humanitarian supplies of food, medicine and medical equipment reach the Syrians there who are suffering from a 12-year-old civil war and a recent devastating earthquake.

Jusoor Post interviewed Ahmed Yazigi, a board member of the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets), to show how the international failure impacts humanitarian work. The UN Security Council failed to get a consensus on a Brazilian/Swiss-drafted resolution allowing the extension of aid delivery for nine months after it was vetoed by Russia. In return, the Russian-tabled resolution, which asked for extending the aid delivery for six months, was vetoed as well.

Yazigi said that millions of residents in Northwest Syria have benefited from humanitarian aid directly, and the failure of adopting the nine-month resolution will negatively impact them and impact humanitarian works and other NGOs. 

“It would lead to doubling the humanitarian needs, which are already large due to the 12-year-old war,” he said, adding that this war “has led to the destruction of infrastructure due to the systematic bombing by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally. It also forced whole families to be displaced, as there are about two million displaced people living in camps who lack livelihoods and sustainability, and then the devastating earthquake increased the fragility of communities.”

Yazigi explained that a period of six months would impose paralysis and a state of inactivity on the work of humanitarian organizations, because the absence of stability in the flow of life-saving aid could threaten the lives of more than 4.8 million civilians, half of whom are forcibly displaced.

“Longer funding and programming timeframes allow for more efficient and predictable outcomes and responses to affected populations. We support all modes of aid delivery, but we urge caution about politicizing and linking such aid to [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s regime’s approval or a focus on cross-line humanitarian assistance,” he said.

To obtain more political gains, Syria offered to allow the UN aid to enter the opposition-controlled area on the condition that the delivery of aid should be conducted in full cooperation with the Syrian regime; however, the UN said this offer is “unacceptable,” AP reported.

Yazigi said that in case the United Nations agreed to the Syrian offer, this would mean the international organization violates the most important principles of humanitarian work by violating the principle of “do no harm.”

“We have more than two million displaced people who have a long history of displacement with the siege by the Syrian regime and its use of aid as a weapon. The UN could cause great psychological harm if it agrees to the Syrian decision by forcing the residents to receive their medicine and food with the approval of the Syrian regime, which is responsible for their suffering and has systematically used aid over the past years as a weapon to besiege, starve and humiliate them,” he continued.

Yazigi noted that the Syrian regime had issued Law 10 to confiscate those people’s property and use chemical weapons without any deterrence to kill them and their children. “How does [the UN] allow the criminal to deliver aid to the victim? The material damage [caused by Assad’s regime] is evident. We all know how the Syrian regime turned the areas under its control into foci of the drug industry and trade. What are the guarantees of not exploiting these convoys as one of the methods of smuggling Captagon?” he wondered.

On April 24, the European Union imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and eight entities, including some of Assad’s cousins and military personnel, besides private security companies, for “the production and trafficking of narcotics, notably Captagon.”

Yazigi said that the opposition in Syria never trust Assad’s actions because they had bad experiences when it comes to delivering aid. “What are the guarantees for not sending expired food and medical supplies? We have seen how the Syrian regime introduced expired aid and caused direct harm to the population and children in Darayya, Ghouta, Homs, and others,” he added.

In early 2018, the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that vital supplies such as surgical instruments, trauma kits, and insulin were stolen from aid convoys, Yazigi noted.

“The Syrian regime pursued retaliatory policies and continued to deny people adequate access to healthcare even years after the city was recaptured,” he continued.

“It would be highly immoral to oblige Syrians […] to accept assistance from the regime responsible for their current suffering and humiliating the Syrians in the northwest, forcing them to choose between dignity and meeting basic needs,” he said.

Children’s dire situation to get worse

Children and vulnerable groups always pay the highest price in war and disasters. Unfortunately, any politicization or suspension of aid will have long-term effects on health and education, Yazigi said.

“Twelve years of war and devastating earthquakes have left millions of children in Syria at increased risk of malnutrition. According to UNICEF statistics, more than 609,900 children under the age of five are stunted in Syria. Stunting is caused by chronic undernutrition and causes irreversible physical and mental damage to children. This affects their ability to learn and their productivity in adulthood,” he explained.

Acute malnutrition among children is also on the rise. According to UNICEF, the number of children aged 6-59 months suffering from severe acute malnutrition increased by 48 percent from 2021 to 2022. “When children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, their immune systems are weakened, and they are 11 times more likely to die,” he added.

The already dire situation of more than 1.7 million children among the most vulnerable in the region will only get worse, Yazigi noted.

Without aid delivered across borders, children will be denied life-saving assistance and have a severe impact on their protection and access to water and sanitation services, medical support and education. Almost every child in Syria now depends on assistance, he continued.

“It is nothing more than a political game and has nothing to do with resolving a humanitarian crisis. In short, it is a political investment plan that relies on exploiting life-saving aid to re-legitimize Assad’s regime,” Yazigi said.