UN scales up relief efforts in quake-hit Syria, Turkiye

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations is rapidly scaling up its humanitarian relief efforts in areas of Syria and Turkiye affected by last week's devastating earthquakes with more aid delivery, and appeal for increase in funding and closer systemwide coordination.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has helped provide micronutrient supplements for 113,000 children under the age of five and 1,000 pregnant and lactating women for three months, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Wednesday while updating the world body's latest relief work.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has been distributing ready-to-eat meals and other food items to displaced families across Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Idlib provinces in Syria, Dujarric told reporters.

The cross-border response continued Wednesday, with 30 trucks from WFP, carrying canned food and mattresses, crossing into northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing. The International Organization for Migration also delivered shelter and non-food items through the Bab al-Salam crossing, he said.

According to the spokesman, since Feb 9, a total of 117 trucks crossed into northwest Syria, with 106 through the Bab al-Hawa crossing and 11 through the Bab al-Salam crossing.

The UN said on Monday Syria decided to open two more crossing points of Bab al-Salam and Al Ra'ee from Turkiye to northwest Syria for an initial period of three months for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Before the earthquakes, Bab al-Hawa was the only crossing through which the UN aid was allowed to go into northwest Syria.

Dujarric said WFP plans to send a further 40 trucks in the next couple of days, potentially using the new border crossings.

WFP has resumed its regular food assistance program with the distribution of food baskets for 170,000 people in non-government-controlled areas in the northwest of Syria in addition to the provision of emergency food rations to 100,000 people since Feb. 6, the spokesman said.

As a major move to scale up the relief operations, Guterres announced on Tuesday the world body was launching a humanitarian appeal for 397 million U.S. dollars for the people of earthquake-hit Syria.

The effort brings together the entire UN system and humanitarian partners and will help secure desperately needed, life-saving relief for nearly 5 million Syrians, including shelter, healthcare, food and protection, Guterres said, adding that "we are in the final stages of a similar appeal for Turkiye."

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes, the United Nations rapidly provided 50 million dollars through the Central Emergency Response Fund.

"We are doing all we can to change this. But much more is needed," Guterres said.

In another effort to scale up UN response, Dujarric said the principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which brings together the UN and its humanitarian partners, has declared a humanitarian systemwide scale-up for six months.

"This helps to ensure that we are collectively and operationally deploying all possible means and resources to urgently respond in the earthquake-impacted areas," he said.

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee is a humanitarian coordination forum of the UN system. It brings together the executive heads of 18 organizations and consortia, with members from within and outside the United Nations, to formulate policy, set strategic priorities and mobilize resources in response to humanitarian crises.