The United Nations said late Tuesday that it had reached agreement with the Syrian government on the use of the main border crossing from Turkey into northwest Syria. The UN cross-border aid operation has been a lifeline to north-west Syria for more than 9 years, reaching millions of people each month with humanitarian aid including food, medicines, and shelter items.
“The Secretary-General welcomes the understanding reached yesterday by the United Nations and the Government of Syria on the continued use for the next six months of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing to deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance to millions of people in need in north-west Syria,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement.
Since 2014, the use of Bab al-Hawa was authorized under a UN Security Council resolution, eliminating the need for Syrian government permission. In July, however, Russia, which has sought to gradually shutter the UN cross-border aid operation, vetoed a nine-month renewal of Bab al-Hawa, which would have gotten aid agencies and residents through the worst winter months.
Damascus later offered to let the UN use Bab al-Hawa, but with conditions that humanitarian groups said would have violated their principles of neutrality and impartiality. The UN has been working with the Syrian leadership to resolve those obstacles but had not resumed using the crossing while negotiations were continuing.
Haq said the agreement allows the UN and its partners to “lawfully” continue providing cross-border humanitarian assistance “at the necessary scale and in a principled manner that allows engagement with all parties for the purposes of seeking humanitarian access and that safeguards the UN’s operational independence.”
The UN moves about 85 percent of aid to north-west Syria through Bab al-Hawa, making it vital to its aid operation. However, the six-month extension means Damascus could cut off access in February at the height of winter.
Haq also said Damascus has given its consent to cross conflict front lines from within Syria at Sarmada and Saraqib for the delivery of assistance for the next six months. While the government wants more cross-line aid delivery, it has been slow to give the consents necessary to expand it.
Earlier Tuesday, Haq told reporters that the government had extended its permission for the UN to use two other crossing points from Turkey into opposition-held areas of north-west Syria for an additional three months. He said the UN received a letter on August 6 from Damascus notifying it of the decision to renew the Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee border crossings until November 13.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also welcomed Syria’s extension of its authorization for the United Nations to use the Bab al-Salam and Al-Ra’ee border crossings for an additional three months, as well as its consent to cross the lines within Syria at Sarmada and Saraqib for the delivery of assistance for the next six months.
All three crossings were originally authorized by the UN Security Council, overriding any need for the government of President Bashar al-Assad to give its permission. But since 2021, Russia has thrown its support behind the Assad government, which wants to internally control aid distribution, and gradually sought to permanently shut down the council-authorized operation.
The UN and aid organizations have repeatedly called for border crossing extensions of at least one year.
“A six-month agreement raises critical challenges for hiring and retaining staff, procuring supplies and delivering services that require much longer than a 6-month guarantee to implement,” said Elias Abu Ata, regional spokesman for the International Rescue Committee.
“The extension of an agreement for two additional crossings, initially opened to support the earthquake response for three months, offers little more security.”
More than 4 million Syrians live in areas outside the government's control, and the UN says it reaches 2.7 million of them monthly with life-saving aid via Bab al-Hawa. The UN says distribution of aid across internal front lines cannot adequately substitute for the volume of supplies it brings in via the cross-border operation.
The Syrian conflict is one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises worldwide. The crisis continues to cause tremendous human suffering to people both inside and outside the country. Overall, 15.3 million people – or 70 percent of the population – need some form of humanitarian assistance in Syria.
Twelve years of conflict in Syria have led to one of the two largest displacement crises in the world, with more than 12.6 million people fleeing their homes. While 6.9 million women, men and children are internally displaced in their own country, the ongoing civil war has resulted in more than 5.7 million Syrian refugees, located mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The February earthquakes further exacerbated the humanitarian situation in Syria, affecting around 8.8 million people. In north-west Syria, at least 4.1 million people rely on humanitarian aid to meet their most basic needs.
The revised Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Syria requires US$5.4 billion, but it is only 24 percent funded. The Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), covering refugees and host communities throughout the region, appeals for $5.77 billion and is just 6 percent funded.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Secretary-General Welcomes United Nations Understanding With Syrian Government to Continue Using Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing for Delivering Life-Saving Aid, statement issued by the Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, released August 8, 2023
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm21900.doc.htm
Full text: Syria: The IRC responds to the recent UN cross-border assistance agreement, International Rescue Committee, press release, published August 9, 2023
https://www.rescue.org/press-release/syria-irc-responds-recent-un-cross-border-assistance-agreement