Some 4 million people in the rebel-held northwest rely on humanitarian aid.
Damascus:
The Syrian government said on Friday that it had approved the delivery of humanitarian aid to areas beyond its control during the rebel-controlled earthquake in the northwest of the country.
“The Council of Ministers approves… the provision of humanitarian aid to all regions of the Syrian Arab Republic,” a cabinet statement said.
It added that aid distribution should be monitored by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Red Crescent with the help of the United Nations.
ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni told AFP following the decision: “Any initiative that contributes to alleviating the suffering of civilians is welcome.”
“The ICRC welcomes any step that leads to faster delivery of much-needed aid to everyone.”
ICRC Director Mirjana Spoljaric visited the earthquake-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday.
Monday’s massive earthquake killed more than 22,700 people in Turkey and Syria, one of the worst disasters in the region in a century.
The United Nations regularly provides aid to rebel-controlled areas, either from neighboring Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa crossroads or directly across the front lines from government-controlled areas.
Some 4 million people in the insurgent-controlled northwest rely on humanitarian aid, but no aid has been shipped from government-controlled areas for three weeks.
Only two aid convoys have reached the area this week from Turkey, where authorities are engaged in an even larger earthquake relief operation of their own.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called on the Security Council to allow the opening of more border crossings on the Turkey-Syria border to deliver UN aid to earthquake victims in the regions. insurgency area.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
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