The Syrian Civil Defense criticizes that the United Nations humanitarian aid has not arrived five days after the earthquakes
GENEVA, 11 Feb. (DPA/EP) –
The Syrian Civil Defense organization, known as the ‘white helmets’, has accused the United Nations this Friday of being “on the side” of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, assuring that no humanitarian aid has reached the areas controlled by the rebels.
“The United Nations is on the side of the government, not the people (…) the UN should apologize to the people,” said the leader of the Syrian Civil Defense, Raed Saleh, in a video conference with journalists collected by the DPA agency.
In this sense, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul Rahman, has reported that a shipment of aid arrived on Thursday, although “there are still a lack” of tents for shelter and equipment to remove rubble.
Likewise, Mustafa Dahnon, an activist from the Syrian city of Idlib who was at the border crossing, assured the aforementioned agency that the aid trucks mainly transported blankets and rugs to keep people warm.
“We need tents. If we have blankets and rugs and we don’t have tents, where will people sleep?” he wondered.
The United Nations sent a first convoy of humanitarian aid to the rebel-held area in northwestern Syria through the Bab al Hawa border crossing on Thursday. This included six trucks with relief supplies and sheds, although the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, stressed that “more help is already on the way.”
So far, the earthquakes have left around 3,424 people dead and more than 5,200 injured in Syria, among the figures offered by the health authorities of the Government of Bashar al Assad and the Syrian Civil Defense, known as ‘white helmets’ and which is located in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo (northwest).
