Conflicts & War

4 million Syrian lives hang on Security Council vote

Beirut, Jan 8 (EFE).- The United Nations Security Council will decide Monday whether to continue sending humanitarian supplies to Syria’s rebel-held northwest, where more than 4 million people need assistance.

The Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey to the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib is the main route through which UN shipments enter the restive region.

The last opposition bastion in the conflict-torn country is home to almost 3 million people displaced by the war that began in 2011.

A vast majority of the region’s 4.6 million inhabitants require humanitarian aid to survive.

NGOs and activists have urged the UN Security Council to renew the cross-border mechanism.

The UN set up the mechanism at the peak of the Syrian war in 2014.

Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has successfully managed to reduce the amount of foreign humanitarian aid entering the war-ravaged country in recent years.

Moscow now aims to eliminate the cross-border mechanism for aid deliveries.

The previous resolution adopted by the Security Council in July last year extended the entry of aid from Turkey until January 10, 2023.

It left the door open for a six-month extension if a Security Council vote decided to.

Russia, which intervened militarily in Syria to support the Bashar government in 2015, prevented the renewal of the mechanism for a longer duration last year.

The vote on Monday will take place as the humanitarian situation in Syria worsens.

The coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine have skyrocketed the prices of basic products.

The Syrian crisis has reached record levels after almost a decade of fighting.

However, international aid donations for the Arab country have declined, partly due to new global conflicts and emergencies.

The UN humanitarian response plan for Syria failed to raise even half of the $4.4 billion in funding needed last year. EFE

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