“We had a very vulnerable situation; people (were) vulnerable, unable to take care of themselves… and this happened all of a sudden,” said El-Mostafa Benlamlih, UN Resident Coordinator in Syria.
Progress is lost
“All the achievements we had before, anyone with a small business loses that business, Anyone who can go to school can’t go to school, and women who can go to the shelter can’t go to the shelter.
Mr. Benlamlih warned that the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance – currently 15.3 million – will have to adjust up.
Speaking from Damascus via video link, Mr. Benlamlih told journalists in New York that 10.9 million people in Syria affected by the disaster in the northwestern provinces of Hama, Latakia, Idlib, Aleppo and Tartus.
Some 100,000 people are now thought to be homeless in Aleppo alonethe humanitarian official continued, as he described only 30,000 of them had found shelter in schools and mosques.
“Those are the lucky ones,” he said, before emphasizing that the remaining 70,000 “have snowfall, they’re cold and they’re living in a terrible situation.”
El-Mostafa Benlamlih, United Nations Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator, temporarily advertises for Syria.
Latest Aid lifeline
confirm that Damaged roads lead to the only cross-border aid route allowed into northwest Syria from Türkiye at Bab al-Hawa, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Syria said he hoped that the crossing would reopen on Thursday.
“Fortunately, today we are told that the road is open…we hope that tomorrow we will be able to ship something across the border,” he said, noting that UN aid groups and partners had begun working “from the first hour of the disaster” using stockpiles of food, dignity and medical kits. available reserves.
Reaching the people
Also at the briefing, the United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, Muhannad Hadi repeated the urgent need to get aid to those who need it.
“Our goal is Reaching people, for us, cross-border and trans-linear are just the way complement each other,” he said.
“The most important thing is that we reach out to everyone at this time who is in dire need of help in this extremely desperate situation. We saw pictures on TV, children stuck in the cold, very cold, snowy winter, it was really heartbreaking.”
Three days after the twin earthquakes in neighboring Türkiye, the situation is still worse and even more precarious than in Syria.
UN Aid Coordination Office OCHA also noted that UN staff and contractors working in Gaziantep have also been directly affected by the disaster, with some people searching for their families in the rubble.
More than 50 search and rescue teams have been deployed to the region, and OCHA also reported that $25 million in emergency funding has been granted by the United Nations to support the response.
Thousands of children and families are in danger after two devastating earthquakes hit southeast Türkiye and Syria on February 6, 2023.
WFP World Food Program, tweeted that the truck in Türkiye departed from its warehouses in Ankara carrying food for the approximately 17,000 affected people currently seeking shelter in the Osmaniye Cevdetiye camp.
The agency said in a press release published later on Wednesday that it planned to reach out half a million people in both countries with much-needed food support.
Tens of thousands have been achieved: WFP
“As of Wednesday morning, WFP has reached nearly 64,000 people in urgent need food assistance, meal delivery, home food packages and hot meals. Food is distributed without cooking and provides immediate relief to families whose precarious circumstances have been made worse by freezing temperatures,” the agency reported.
In the southeast of Türkiye, the emergency food agency is working with the authorities to deliver home food packages to people in makeshift camps. The camps already house about 44,000 Syrians under temporary protection and now include newly displaced Turkish nationals.
In places where conventional supermarkets are no longer accessible, WFP plans to provide families food packages for Turkish citizens for up to two weeks when the services are stable.
In Syria, WFP and local partners have provided instant rations and hot meals daily to 38,000 affected people in shelters.
“The world woke up to devastating news on Monday. A region stricken by years of complex crises is faced with another, with unimaginable loss and devastation. Immediate relief can’t be delayed,” said WFP regional director for the broader region, Corinne Fleischer. “WFP’s strong footprint in both countries allows us to immediately mobilize our staff, logistics capabilities and partners to meet people’s most pressing food needs.”
And in northwestern Syria, earthquakes have complicated an acute humanitarian crisis, the WFP said, in which 4.1 million people – or 90% of the population – have depended on humanitarian assistance. Of these, nearly three million have been displaced by conflict – often more than once.
WFP staff killed
WFP has enough ready-to-eat food in northwest Syria to support 125,000 people and is delivering it to local partners.
The agency stressed that it “mourages all the lives lost in this tragedy”, which sadly including at least one of its employees.
