WHO: The impact of the earthquake is great on the areas of Syria under government control, but services exist and those affected people can be reached
The World Health Organization said, on Wednesday, that it is particularly concerned about the situation of the population in northwestern Syria, which is controlled by opposition factions and has suffered from a lack of aid flows since the earthquake that occurred last week.
“It is clear that the area of greatest concern right now is northwest Syria,” Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, told a press briefing in Geneva.
He added, “The impact of the earthquake is great on the Syrian areas under the control of the government, but the services are there and these affected people can be reached. We have to remember here that in Syria there has been a war for ten years. The health system is incredibly fragile.”
The war, which has divided the country for more than a decade, is hampering efforts to distribute aid. Civil war hostilities have hampered at least two attempts to send aid across the front lines into northwestern Syria, but an aid convoy reached the area overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Volunteers prepare aid to be distributed to those affected in Jenderes
For his part, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the Health Organization, said on Wednesday that prominent officials in the organization asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, during a visit to Damascus in the aftermath of the earthquake last Monday, to open more border crossings with Turkey to ensure the delivery of aid to the region.
Assad authorized the opening of two additional border crossings into northwestern Syria on Monday, a move Human Rights Watch called “too little, too late”.
But Ryan described the opening of the two crossings as an indication that “all sides are stepping back and focusing on people’s needs right now.”
“It is sometimes impossible to provide adequate health care in the context of an ongoing conflict,” he added.
He added, “We have seen a huge mobilization of aid. We have seen the deployment of emergency medical teams. We have seen all the things that we need to see in a disaster, but this will not be sustainable unless we have a more peaceful framework in which this can happen more effectively.” .
