UN officials call for ‘strong support’, ‘political path’ for Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, top UN officials called on the Security Council to offer “strong support” to Syria in order to pave a “political path” towards lasting recovery and reconciliation following the Feb. 6 earthquake.
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said, in a briefing, that the 2023 response plan “will require $4.8 billion, the largest humanitarian appeal currently active.”
“Many people are afraid to return to their homes,” as hundreds of buildings are at risk of collapsing, he said.
People are packed into tents, and the risk of disease is growing, amid a pre-existing cholera outbreak, he added.
Shelters in northwest Syria are witnessing a high number of scabies cases, as these shelters run low on water.
In addition, cholera was already endemic in the region. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded, on January 17, 100 deaths of cholera in Syria.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, encouraged a united and generous response alongside a fully coordinated engagement in the period ahead in order to chart a political way forward.
It will require a serious conversation among key stakeholders to make progress on some of the unresolved political issues of the conflict, he said.
The so-called step-for-step approach is more relevant now than ever before, the Special Envoy added.
In December 2021, Pedersen talked about implementing a step-for-step approach, a policy pursued by some countries in their rapprochement with Damascus, as Washington and its allies have to lift or ease some sanctions on the Syrian government, in exchange for Moscow pushing the government to make progress on the stalled attempts at reaching a political solution.
In turn, Rasha Muhrez, Response Director at Save the Children, an NGO, warned “We are now in a race against time.”
“Without a change in approach, just to rebuild what was lost, Syrians would need to wait another lifetime,” she said.
Children need “safe homes” to live in and their parents need jobs that pay a decent wage, according to Muhrez.
“The earthquake response should be a moment to come together and put politics aside,” she said.