UN must continue delivering aid to north-west Syria through all border crossings
Amnesty InternationalMay 12, 2023
On Saturday, Syria agreed to extend the authorization for the UN to utilize two additional border crossings for post-earthquake humanitarian assistance for three additional months.
Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said the decision to open the border crossings at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai until Aug. 13 was taken "to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to all those in need in all Syria."
Since the outbreak of Syria's civil war, Bashar al-Assad's regime has consistently made aid delivery more difficult and, in many cases, sabotaged the process altogether. Cross-border aid is one of the only effective ways of circumventing the government's malicious intentions and helping people affected by the devastating earthquake.
The Syrian government continues to tolerate aid deliveries into regions of Syria controlled by extremists. This runs directly against international regulations. Though the government wants to help all Syrians, the areas occupied by rebel forces take advantage of the cross-border mechanism to steal humanitarian aid for themselves and, at times, to sell it for higher prices.