In Syria, humanitarian aid was a desperate task even before the earthquake disaster. In the isolated north-west, it may be too late for many of those who were buried.
Earthquakes know no national borders. However, anyone following the rescue operations in Turkey and Syria these days found two sides of the border to be quite different worlds: in Turkey, more than 100,000 helpers, search parties with dogs, special equipment for tracking down victims, cranes and more. Offers of help came from dozens of countries, including Germany, Spain and the USA.
On the other side of the border, in north-western Syria, nothing happened at first. Since Monday morning, volunteers from the White Helmets rescue organization have been trying to pull people alive from the rubble with their bare hands and shovels. There were so few rescuers that by Thursday noon it was only possible to search in five percent of the affected areas. More than 3,300 deaths have been reported nationwide.
Civil war makes humanitarian aid more difficult
Humanitarian aid for Syria was already a desperate task in the years before this catastrophe. The reason for this is the civil war that has been going on since 2011 and its consequences. The province of Idlib in the densely populated north-west, a last insurgent stronghold, is effectively isolated from the rest of the country. Entry is only possible via Turkey, border crossings are largely closed. There is little or no electricity or internet.
“What can you say. As always, the world has given up on us. We’ve lost everything,” a resident of the small town of Dschindiris told the dpa in a shaky voice on the phone. Around 20 members of his family are still buried. “On the first day we heard their voices under the rubble, but then they gradually subsided. The situation is hopeless.” Around 2,000 dead and 5,000 injured were reported only in the northwest. The numbers are likely to continue to rise.
The reason for the difficult access is the war and the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who, according to official information, visited earthquake victims on Friday together with his wife Asma in a clinic in Aleppo. So far, Assad’s government has used aid supplies as a means of exerting power in the conflict to put pressure on the rebels – and there are no signs that the earthquake disaster is changing that.
According to activists, everything is currently missing – such as blankets, tents and warm clothing. “The need is very great,” says Bahia Zrikem from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which provides aid throughout Syria. After the earthquake, many Syrians found shelter in tents, collective accommodation, mosques and schools. “We are facing a catastrophe that is worse than the days of war,” says a woman from Aleppo, describing the situation.
There are repeated fears that the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey will also be closed. In effect, that would mean turning off the humanitarian aid supply to the Northwest and the approximately 4.5 million residents in the region.
Syrian activists also accuse Turkey of delaying aid transports to Syria. And the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in turn, accuse Ankara-backed rebels inside Syria of blocking supplies of essential emergency supplies to some rebel-held areas of the fragmented civil war-torn country.
Families go in search of food like “hunters and gatherers”.
To make matters worse, the aid has so far been coordinated from Gaziantep in Turkey, which was badly hit by the earthquake. The UN and organizations such as Save the Children or Welthungerhilfe actually have regional offices here, but now they are complaining of some fatalities in their own teams. A CARE employee reports dramatic scenes from a windowless emergency shelter without water, where families like “hunters and gatherers” go in search of food.
Things are no easier in Syrian areas controlled by Assad and allies — about two-thirds of the country. Assad took and continues to take brutal action against his own population in the war, killing more than 350,000 people. He is accused of crimes against humanity, such as the use of chemical weapons. Offers of help to a government that “gasses” and “slaughters” its own people would be “rather ironic if not counterproductive,” says US State Department spokesman Ned Price.
“Eiertanz” for aid organizations
Of course, the people there still need help, both before and after the earthquake. However, aid organizations have to meet many conditions in order not to violate US and EU sanctions and risk penalties. It’s an “egg dance,” says the head of a German aid organization working in Syria. The sanctions were imposed on the Assad government to put pressure on it and dry up its cash flow.
For example, anyone who wants to rent rooms, organize transport or buy equipment risks such a violation. Simply because someone who has ties to the government benefits indirectly. Telephone providers, insurance companies, banks, fuel – risks lurk everywhere, says Bahia Zrikem from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which provides aid throughout Syria. “It delays everything we do,” she says.
Assad government uses aid supplies as a means of power
It has also been repeatedly documented how the Assad government uses aid supplies as a means of power: areas perceived as loyal were supplied and residential areas that the rebels once controlled were ignored. Food baskets would be distributed to military units. The central bank also earns a lot from distorted exchange rates when aid agencies exchange US dollars for pounds in order to work in Syria, writes the CSIS think tank.
Even before the earthquake, 90 percent of the population in Syria lived in poverty, and pretty much everything is missing. According to the UN, 15 million people are dependent on aid. On Sunday evening, the Syrians probably wouldn’t have thought of the word “earthquake,” writes an observer on Twitter – they were preoccupied with thoughts of war, poverty, destruction, cholera, fear, winter cold and death.
Aleppo – symbol of the Syrian civil war
Aleppo’s residents are in shock after the devastating earthquake. “We are facing a catastrophe that is worse than the days of war,” said a woman named Suad of the German Press Agency. “Many of our neighbors and relatives died in the earthquake.” Her family owned several houses, all of which are now uninhabitable. She doesn’t know where to live now. The city’s emergency shelters are overcrowded.
Aleppo is considered a symbol of the Syrian civil war. The city was severely damaged in fierce fighting. It is now back under the control of the government troops of ruler Bashar al-Assad. According to the UN, every third building in the town was destroyed by the tremors.
According to the Syrian rescue organization White Helmets, no humanitarian aid from the United Nations (UN) for the earthquake victims had arrived in north-west Syria by Friday. The head of the White Helmets, Raed Al-Saleh, made serious accusations against the UN and appealed to governments around the world to organize direct aid outside the UN. “The United Nations is on the side of the government, not the people,” Al-Saleh said, according to a translator. “You should apologize to the people.” Al-Saleh spoke from the Idlib region via video link to members of the Association of UN Accredited Press in Geneva (ACANU).
Biden pledges millions in aid to Turkey and Syria
The US will provide $85 million (about €79 million) for much-needed humanitarian assistance following the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The aid should include food, shelter, medicine and family care, wrote US President Joe Biden on Thursday (local time) on Twitter. “Our hearts are with the people of Turkey and Syria,” he added.
The US Treasury Department allowed all relevant transactions for a period of 180 days so that earthquake aid for civil war-torn Syria can be carried out despite the sanctions against the ruler Bashar al-Assad. This easing will not reverse the Assad regime’s longstanding structural challenges and brutal tactics, Wally Adeyemo, the deputy finance minister, said in a statement on Thursday. But she can ensure that sanctions do not hinder the life-saving aid that is now needed.