People walk past collapsed buildings following a devastating earthquake in the town of Jinderis, Aleppo province, Syria
(Picture: AP)The first aid convoy to reach Syria’s rebel-held northwest since the devastating earthquake brought medicine, blankets tents and shelter kits on Thursday.
Six trucks crossed the border from Turkey into the enclave which is home to 4.6 million people already dependent on humanitarian aid before the natural disaster struck.
The crossing at Bab al-Hawa is the only one the UN is allowed to use to bring aid from Turkey but roads damaged by the earthquake had stopped it using the route for several days.
The issue of cross-border aid is a political one with the Syrian regime and its Russian ally wanting deliveries to the enclave to come through Damascus rather than Turkey.
Officials in the Syrian capital say they can distribute aid everywhere in Syria but critics say President Bashar Assad’s government has a history of blocking or misdirecting aid intended for rebel-controlled areas.
“Assad has a long history of politicizing aid, diverting it to his supporters, or selling it at the black market,” said Karam Shaar, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute.
The first convoy was a delivery delayed from before the earthquake but the U.N. said more convoys with earthquake-response aid would follow.
Monday’s earthquake also damaged a dam in northern Syria causing a flood that wrecked buildings that withstood the earthquake.
The death toll in both parts of Syria has risen over 3,000 but several Syrians living abroad said in social media posts that online fundraising platforms have blocked their efforts to wire money to Syria due to western-led sanctions on the country.
In Damascus, the parliament calling for the lifting of the sanctions as did the Syrian Red Crescent amid fuel shortages and insufficient equipment.
The United States and European Union have slammed Damascus’ demand for the lifting of sanctions, saying the measures affect Assad’s government and do not include humanitarian aid.
Several planes from Assad’s key allies Iran and Russia, as well as a handful of Arab countries — the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Iraq — have airlifted aid to Damascus and Aleppo, two major Syrian airports.
