(Bab al-Hawa) “We are going to die”, “it is a disaster”, “starvation policy”. Displaced people in areas controlled by jihadists and rebels in northwestern Syria attacked Russia on Saturday after its veto at the UN threatening crucial aid.
Posted at 10:58 a.m.
On Friday, Russia, an ally and military supporter of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council extending by one year the authorization of cross-border aid to Syria without the backing of power in Damascus, Moscow only accepting a six-month extension.
This authorization via the Bab al-Hawa crossing point on the Syrian-Turkish border, which avoids areas in the hands of the regime, expires on Sunday. The 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council should offer a nine-month extension to break the deadlock, diplomats say.
In force since 2014, the cross-border system helps more than 2.4 million people in areas of Idlib province and the north of the neighboring province of Aleppo under the control of jihadist and rebel groups.
“The project ignored the sovereignty of Damascus,” denounced the Russian diplomat at the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, suggesting that Moscow would not accept any other text that did not take six months.
“Russia destroyed our homes, destroyed our children and drove us to flight […] Today, she wants to close the crossing point” of Bab al-Hawa, told AFP Ftaim, 45, who lives in a camp for displaced people in the north of Idlib province.
“If the Bab al-Hawa crossing closes […] we are going to die,” the mother of 14 fumed.
” Famine ”
More than 4,600 aid trucks carrying mainly food have passed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing this year, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
On Saturday, it was closed due to Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the hajj, according to an AFP correspondent on site.
The Russian veto has spoiled the party for many displaced people for whom this aid is crucial.
They know very well that most of the inhabitants of the (displaced) camps depend on this aid. The Russian veto is “a disaster.
Abdel Salam Youssef, a displaced Syrian
The province of Idlib, the last stronghold of jihadists and rebels in war-torn Syria, is home to the majority of displaced people living in poverty.
The Russian veto embodies “the policy of siege and starvation to which Russia resorts through Syria”, denounced to AFP Mazen Allouche, responsible for the crossing of Bab al-Hawa.
“Disregard for human life”
A non-renewal of the authorization would be “a prelude to an uncontrollable famine and would directly threaten the food security of more than four million people”, added Mr. Allouche.
The cross-border system includes medical aid considered a lifeline for the region’s health sector, decimated after 11 years of war.
Its non-renewal “would lead to the total collapse of the health sector”, warned Salem Abdane, Idlib’s health director.
This would lead to “the closure of 21 hospitals, 12 medical centers and put an end to several projects, including vaccination campaigns”, he added, warning of an “increase in the death rate and diseases”.
Moscow’s veto, key in the Syrian file, was Friday the 17the since the outbreak of war in Syria in 2011.
“Russia’s cynical veto […] shows that the contempt of the Russian leaders for human life could approach an all-time high”, denounced the NGO Human Rights Watch.