Syria: Vital earthquake aid blocked or diverted in Aleppo’s desperate hour of need

Beirut: The Syrian government and Turkey-backed rebel forces have blocked more than 100 trucks carrying essential aid such as food, medical supplies and tents from entering Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, Amnesty International said on Monday.

The rights group said that rebels also blocked at least 30 aid trucks from entering Afrin, a city in northern Aleppo occupied by Turkey.

“The earthquakes have pushed tens of thousands of people in Aleppo who were already struggling due to a decade-long armed conflict into further destitution. Yet even in this moment of desperation, the Syrian government and armed opposition groups have pandered to political considerations and taken advantage of people’s misery to advance their own agendas,” said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“These politically motivated obstructions of critical aid have had tragic ramifications, especially for search and recovery teams who need fuel to operate machinery,” he said.

Majzoub further said that all parties to the conflict, including the Syrian government and Turkey-backed armed groups, should be prioritizing the needs of civilians whose lives have been upended in this catastrophic natural disaster and ensuring that they have unfettered access to aid.

A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked huge swathes of Turkey and parts of Syria on February 6, killing more than 50,000 people in both countries.

The UN estimates that at least 6,000 people in Syria have been killed and over 8 million people are in urgent need of assistance, including 4.1 million people in opposition-held areas in northern Syria and 4 million people in government-held areas.

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