After a deadly earthquake struck Turkiye and war-torn Syria last month, neither the international community nor the Syrian government moved swiftly enough to assist those in need in the rebel-held northwest, a U.N.-backed commission said on Monday.
More than 50,000 people, including over 6,000 in Syria, were killed by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake and powerful aftershocks that devastated southern Turkey and western Syria on February 6.
There should be an investigation into why it took a week to open border crossings so that aid could arrive, according to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria. War-torn Syria was also mentioned “For civilians, including aid workers, to be safe, a comprehensive cease-fire that is fully respected is now required.
The commission also noted that there have been fresh assaults in Syria, including a rumored Israeli airstrike last week that reportedly forced Aleppo’s international airport to close for three days. When the airport was shut down, flights were diverted to two other airports because it had been a major entry point for aid into Syria.
Since the Syrian conflict was almost at its beginning in 2011, the commission, which is composed of external, independent experts, has been operating under a mandate from the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council.
Given that many people were still buried beneath the rubble, it took the United Nations and President Bashar Assad’s government a week to come to an agreement on opening two additional border crossings into the rebel-held area bordering Turkey.
“Since the earthquake, the Syrian people themselves have performed numerous acts of kindness for the victims, commission member Paulo Pinheiro said at a news conference in Geneva. The government, the international community, including the UN, “completely failed,” he continued, “to quickly direct urgent life-saving aid for northwest Syria.”
“The earthquake survivors were left without assistance for many days, according to Pinheiro. “Northwest Syria, which became the center of neglect, did not receive urgent life-saving aid from actors in a timely manner.
The United Nations announced a week after the earthquake that Syrian President Bashir Assad had agreed to open for three months two new crossing points from Turkiye to the nation’s rebel-held northwest in order to deliver desperately needed supplies and equipment to earthquake victims.
Prior to that, the U.N. was only permitted to deliver aid to the northwest Idlib region through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing at the request of Russia, a Syrian ally.
In the crucial first week following the earthquake, they failed to provide international emergency support, including rescue teams and equipment, according to Pinheiro, who also stated that “Syrians, for good reasons, felt abandoned and neglected by those who (are) supposed to protect them in their most desperate time.”
“To understand how this failure, this disaster happened beyond the earthquake, many voices are rightly calling for an investigation and accountability, Pinheiro said.
Attorney General Hanny Megally stated “Unfortunately, none of the real players in this situation have been contributing, and it is impossible to determine who is most at fault without conducting a thorough investigation.
According to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations, the organization operates under the authority of the Security Council of the United Nations, which at the time of the earthquake only required aid deliveries to be made to northwest Syria through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing.
“At the U.N.’s headquarters in New York, Dujarric told reporters that the organization did everything in its power to assist everyone in Syria as soon as possible.
The commission urged countries with citizens detained in the northeastern Syrian camps of al-Hol and Roj to expedite the repatriation procedure. According to the report, the situation at the camps housing about 56,000 people, mostly women and children connected to the Islamic State group, is getting worse.
“The pain they endured might qualify as a war crime for violating someone’s personal dignity. We reiterate our call for accelerated repatriations in the report of the commission.
There are about 50,000 Syrians and Iraqis crammed into tents at the fenced-off camp of al-Hol.
It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I’ve been meaning to for a while. An additional 2,000 women, who are thought to be the most ardent IS supporters, and their approximately 8,000 children are held in the annex, a separate and heavily guarded area of al-Hol.
In recent months, some nations—including France, Spain, Russia, and Iraq—returned some of their citizens, but many others continue to refuse.
“Some of those children have no life outside of these terrible conditions, and access to health care and education is extremely limited, according to commissioner Lynn Welchman. “These camps are terrible locations.
