UN starts aid delivery to Syria from Iraq
UN says it is delivering food and winter supplies to Syria’s mainly Kurdish northeastern region over the next 12 days.
The United Nations sent its first delivery of humanitarian aid by air to Syria from Iraq and said it plans to deliver more food and winter supplies to the mainly Kurdish northeast in the next 12 days.
The first cargo plane carrying food took off from Arbil in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region on Sunday heading to Hassakeh in Syria.
The food supplies over the next 12 days should be able to feed more than 6,000 Syrian families for the rest of December, the UN’s World Food Programme said.
This is the third winter since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011.
The airlifts were delayed last week because of a storm which swept across Syria and Lebanon, bringing with it high winds and freezing temperatures. Cold, dry winds whipped the Tarmac at Arbil airport before takeoff.
“We witnessed today the first flight that took place from Arbil International Airport to Qamishli city, which is populated by Kurdish inhabitants in Syria. This is the first flight to be conducted in this manner,” Dindar Zibari, deputy head of Kurdistan’s Foreign Relations Department, told journalists at the airport.
Both governments gave permission for the aid flights which will also include supplies of non-food items such as blankets, clothes and medicine in the coming days.
Harsh winter
The 12-day airlift, involving various UN agencies, will include 400 tonnes of food and 196 kg of medical kits, he said.
UN agencies have ferried limited aid supplies into Syria from Iraq and Lebanon, but not via Turkey because of objections from President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
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Syria gave permission several weeks ago for the cross-border UN operation, which had initially envisaged truck convoys, which would have been cheaper.
However, the UN found negotiating with different factions on the ground in Syria had become increasingly complicated and resorted to the direct airlift instead.
The bad weather has increased the needs of internally displaced Syrians and supplies in warehouses are running low, said Eliana Naba’a, spokeswoman for the UN’s Iraq mission.
The UN said last week that the number of vulnerable people in the Hassakeh province is estimated at 50,000-60,000 and that the population has been out of reach for a long time.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria, which began with peaceful protests against Assad and has descended into civil war.
The conflict has stoked sectarian tensions across the Middle East and triggered a humanitarian crisis. The UN’s refugee agency says about 6.5 million people have fled their homes within Syria and 2.3 million sought refuge abroad.