A man carries a child's body, pulled out from the rubble in the Syrian town of Harim, in rebel-held northwestern Idlib, Feb. 8, 2023, two days after the deadly earthquake. (Credit: Mohammed al-Rifai/AFP)
The White Helmets rescue group Friday accused the United Nations of botching its earthquake response in rebel-held areas of northwestern Syria.
Leveraging years of experience accumulated during Syria's 10-plus years of civil war, the White Helmets have been spearheading rescue efforts in rebel 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 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 remaining, 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 afraid to return to damaged houses.
A UN aid convoy crossed into rebel-held Syria from Turkey 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.
A first convoy entered rebel-held areas Thursday, 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 rebel areas.
At least 284,000 people have are 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 Thursday to authorize the opening of additional crossings for the delivery of quake relief.
Leveraging years of experience accumulated during Syria's 10-plus years of civil war, the White Helmets have been spearheading rescue efforts in rebel areas with virtually no outside help.
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