Closure of Syria-Iraq crossing reduces medical aid by 70%: AANES health official
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, a health official in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said that the closure of Tel Kocher (Yaroubiyah) crossing stopped the arrival of UN aid to Syria and reduced the delivered materials by 70%.
Tel Kocher crossing, which sits on the Syria-Iraq border and is the only crossing through which UN aid may enter the AANES’s regions in Syria’s northeast, has been closed for a year after Russia and China used their veto in the UN Security Council to close the crossing to the passage of UN aid.
“More than a million people in Syria’s northeast, most of them IDPs, depend on the humanitarian aid to survive,” the co-manager of the Kurdish Red Crescent Sherwan Berri said.
“The Damascus government’s limiting of the work of UN agencies to its area of control did not contribute to these agencies replacing the closed crossing,” he added.
The AANES has repeatedly accused the government of not cooperating in the health field, especially during the coronavirus outbreak.
Berri stated they suffer from a shortage of materials and cannot provide the same quantity of aid they used to referring to the supplies needed to confront coronavirus.
“We try to secure the materials from the region, but it’s not always easy and possible,” according to Berri.
On Monday, an official in the AANES said that the closure of Tel Kocher crossing deprives the residents of northeast Syria of aid amounting to $26.8 million due to the suspension of support to many organizations working in the region.
On Sunday, the AANES appealed to the international community and the United Nations to open Tel Kocher crossing and to separate the humanitarian situation from the political interests of some countries.