White Helmets slam UN earthquake response in opposition areas of Syria

The White Helmets rescue group accused the United Nations on Friday of botching its response in opposition-held areas of northwestern Syria to this week’s devastating quake.

Leveraging years of experience gleaned during Syria’s more than decade-long civil war, the White Helmets have been spearheading rescue efforts in opposition areas with virtually no outside help.

“The UN has committed a crime against the Syrian people in the northwest,” the group’s chief Raed Saleh told AFP, noting that UN agencies had not delivered any quake-specific relief to survivors since the disaster hit before dawn on Monday. “The UN must apologize to the Syrian people.”

Saleh said the White Helmets’ top priority was “shelter for tens of thousands of families who have lost their homes,” as well as heating, personal hygiene kits and access to clean water.

The rescuers have searched more than 300 heavily damaged buildings, with six to 12 more locations they have yet to sweep, he said.

Quake survivors have flocked to camps erected for people displaced by war from other parts of Syria. Many lost their homes or are too scared to return to damaged houses.

A UN aid convoy crossed into opposition-held Syria from Turkey on Friday, the second such delivery since the quake, a border official told AFP.

The 14-truck convoy carried non-food items such as “humanitarian kits, solar lamps, blankets and other assistance,” International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Paul Dillon told reporters in Geneva.

The aid “will be sufficient for about 1,100 families in the quake-hit areas in Idlib” province, he added.

On Thursday, a first convoy entered rebel-held areas carrying basic relief items for 5,000 people, the IOM said.

The Syrian government said later Friday it had approved the delivery of humanitarian aid directly from government-held territory to opposition areas.

At least 284,000 people have become newly displaced by the quake, the World Food Program said Friday, with Middle East regional director Corinne Fleischer adding that no WFP trucks had “gone across the border.”

“The roads are damaged and that slows down our deliveries,” she told reporters in Geneva.

Currently, just one crossing on the Syria-Turkey border is open to UN aid deliveries.

UN chief Antonio Guterres urged the Security Council on Thursday to authorize the opening of additional crossings for the delivery of quake relief.