Turkey, Government Prevented AANES Aid from Reaching Disaster Areas – STJ
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkey, the Syrian government, and opposition factions have hindered convoys of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) from getting to earthquake-affected areas of northwest Syria, Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), a human rights group, said on Tuesday.
The STJ report cited a first-rank commander of Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), as saying that the decision was passed down to the head of the opposition’s Syrian Interim Government (SIG), Abdurrahman Mustafa, who refused the entry of the convoy to the region, claiming that the AANES is capitalizing on the situation for its political interests, according to the commander.
An AANES official said, days after the earthquake, that complications by the Syrian government and the SNA hinder the arrival of aid from northeastern Syria to disaster areas.
The trucks, loaded with aid, waited at the Umm Jloud crossing, which separates territory under the control of the AANES and that of the SNA, for the latter to allow their entry into the region.
A second SNA commander told the STJ that fighters from several factions pressured their command to accept the AANES’ aid, especially fuel needed for operating rescue equipment, as many of the people stuck under the rubble were families of these fighters.
The STJ pointed out that the deliberate blockage of aid hampered rescue efforts that could have saved the lives of hundreds of innocent people.
The Syrian government has also deliberately hampered the passage of aid into the region, leading to a “poor response and unnecessary deaths,” according to the report.
Following the earthquake, the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) sent two aid convoys to the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in Aleppo city in order to help with earthquake relief efforts.
The Syrian government demanded at the time “half of the convoy’s contents” in exchange for entry, according to the STJ.
On Feb. 15, the AANES agreed to hand over 40 of 100 fuel trucks it had sent to areas affected by the earthquake to the government in return for safe passage for the remaining 60 trucks, as well as a medical convoy.