Syria: Failure to renew UN cross-border resolution puts many lives at risk.
by IR Staff
The failure of the July 11 UN Security Council meeting to renew UN cross-border aid into northwest Syria will put many lives at risk and undermine efforts to recover from the recent earthquakes, Islamic Relief is warning. The charity is calling on the Security Council to urgently reconvene and renew the resolution for at least another 12 months.
The resolution that permits the UN to deliver cross-border aid expired on Monday and was expected to be renewed, but the failure to do so has plunged aid operations for millions of people into uncertainty. Around 90% of people in northwest Syria live in poverty and millions depend on cross-border aid for food, medicine and other critical services.
Reacting to the outcome of the Security Council meeting, Ahmed Mahmoud, Islamic Relief’s Head of Mission in Syria and Turkiye, says:
“If the UN Security Council does not urgently reconvene and agree to renew the resolution then vital UN aid will stop coming across the border at a time when record numbers of people are in need.
“This comes at a terrible time, with 4.4 million people in northwest Syria in critical need of aid right now. It is five months since the earthquake hit and massive reconstruction and rehabilitation is urgently required, but this will be hugely disrupted if the resolution is not renewed. Many rising needs are already not being addressed, as attention has shifted away from Syria and international donor governments have reduced their funding. Together with rising food and fuel prices, this is a particularly hard time for people in northwest Syria.
Islamic Relief has worked in northwest Syria since 2012, before the first cross-border resolution was agreed in 2014. We have seen just how much the resolution has increased aid and access to people in need in areas outside government control. Failure to renew it will hugely increase the already extremely high burden on organisations working in the region.”
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Joint NGO Statement on the UN Security Council failure to reauthorise cross-border aid to Syria
Issued on behalf of the Syria INGO Regional Forum (SIRF), Syrian NGO Alliance (SNA), Syria Networks League (SNL) and Northwest Syria NGO Forum, collectively representing over 100 humanitarian NGOs working in Syria
NGO Forums representing over 100 Syrian and international humanitarian organisations condemn, in the strongest possible terms, today’s failure of the UN Security Council to extend the authorisation of the humanitarian cross-border mechanism in Syria, ultimately putting millions of lives at risk. Humanitarian NGOs operational in Syria are extremely concerned by the failure of the Security Council to reauthorise a mechanism that would ensure humanitarian aid continues to reach millions of people in northwest Syria. Members of the Security Council have put politics ahead of the lives of Syrian civilians who are in urgent need of life-saving assistance — 80% of them being children and women of all ages.
In northwest Syria, rapidly deteriorating living conditions coupled with two massive earthquakes this year have left over 4.4 million people depending on humanitarian assistance. Before the earthquakes, the UN’s cross-border operation reached over 2.7 million people each month. This mechanism is the backbone of the northwest response and provides funding, critical aid and healthcare supplies and other life-saving support. Today the Security Council failed to stand up for Syrian children and families in the northwest and have put their futures in jeopardy.
Year after year, the ability of humanitarian organisations — including Syrian NGOs — to provide principled assistance wherever it is needed has been slowly chipped away. In 2014, there were four UN-led border crossings that helped to ensure food, shelter, water, protection, critical medical services, and other life-saving support reached Syrians in need. Today’s decision to not reauthorise access through Baba Al-Hawa will create a major impediment to effective humanitarian aid for millions — particularly given that 80% of all UN supported aid in the northwest is delivered through this border crossing.
Since the earthquakes, 2,700 trucks have crossed through Baba Al-Hawa and so essential humanitarian services risk being severely impacted by the lack of authorisation. Existing progress on early recovery assistance may be set back, food supplies, healthcare, protection for the most vulnerable are all at risk, and many other services will suffer as a result of this decision. Ultimately lives are at risk of being lost that could be spared.
There is simply no justification for restricting aid to Syrians at a time when humanitarian needs are at their height. Reaching all Syrians in need via the most direct routes is not a political choice, it is a humanitarian imperative. We urgently call on the Security Council to reconvene at the earliest possible time to authorise UN-led cross-border humanitarian assistance for a minimum of 12 months in order to avert an impending, yet completely preventable, catastrophe.
