The UN Security Council has voted Tuesday on the extension of the mandate allowing aid to flow from Turkey to 4.1 million Syrians living in opposition-held areas of the country’s northwest. Life-saving assistance is at risk after the Council failed to adopt either of two competing resolutions to extend cross-border aid delivery.
The first draft resolution, tabled by Brazil and Switzerland, called for a nine-month extension, even though most members were in favor of a 12-month extension. Russia voted against the compromise resolution, while China abstained.
Owing to the negative vote cast by permanent member Russia, the Council failed to adopt the resolution. The second resolution for a six-month extension was submitted by Russia, which China supported. Three countries voted against (France, United Kingdom, United States) and 10 abstained.
“This is a sad moment for the Syrian people and for this Council, save for one country”, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the United Nations, said, following the first vote.
Noting that a majority stood together to extend the humanitarian lifeline, she added: “I just have to ask why Russia has not lived up to its responsibility as a permanent member of this Council?”
The text was a compromise and “the absolute minimum” that could be achieved, she said, noting that her delegation supported the resolution in that spirit.
The Security Council authorization for cross-border operations under Resolution 2672 expired Monday.
Over the last few years, Russia, with Syrian government backing, has forced the Security Council to shrink the operation and has threatened to completely shutter it. Since 2021, Moscow had only agreed to 6-month renewals, instead of the year-long ones the Council had approved since the operation was established in 2014, and which humanitarians have requested.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres had called for a 12-month renewal of that authorization. UN humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations also called for aid access to northwest Syria to continue and be expanded. Last week, the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and the heads of six UN agencies urged Council members to renew this “vital pipeline.”
“Every month, it allows the United Nations and our partners to reach 2.7 million people with medicines, safe water, food, shelter supplies and protection services from across the border,” they said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that aid deliveries to northwest Syria continued Monday. According to an UN spokesperson, 79 trucks moved through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing, carrying humanitarian supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Another 19 trucks loaded with aid went through the Bab Al-Salam crossing.
Since the February 6th earthquakes, more than 3,700 trucks carrying aid from seven UN agencies have crossed into northwest Syria through the three available border crossings. As of Monday, the UN has also completed more than 150 cross-border missions to the northwest, since the first inter-agency visit to Idleb on February 14.
A UN spokesman said Tuesday, as the cross-border resolution expired on July 10, cross-border aid deliveries would only continue through the Bab Al-Salam and Al-Ra’ee crossings. Both were opened with the consent of the Syrian government following the February earthquakes and have been extended until 13 August.
“The UN continues to advocate for expanding all avenues to deliver humanitarian assistance to millions of people in need in northwest Syria. The renewal of the authorization is essential, as Bab al-Hawa remains the center of gravity for the UN’s cross-border response, including being in close proximity to Idleb, where most of the people in need in northwest Syria live”, the spokesman stressed.
Over 85 percent of trucks reach northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa crossing. UN agencies have pre-positioned supplies on the ground in northwest Syria to ensure that humanitarian needs will continue to be met.
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.
Millions of Syrians are coping with stress on multiple fronts as the civil war drags on, a severe economic crisis engulfs the country, they recover from a series of deadly earthquakes, and conflicts in other parts of the world detract from the urgency of their situation.
The February earthquakes further exacerbated the humanitarian situation in Syria, affecting around 8.8 million people. In Northwest 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 12 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 3.5 percent funded.
In June, the World Food Programme said it would be forced to end food assistance to 2.5 million Syrians inside the country this month, if it does not receive at least $180 million in donations to fund programs through the end of this year.
Further information
Full text: Security Council: Syria Cross-Border Mechanism, UN Security Council, press release, published July 11, 2023
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15348.doc.htm