The head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Wednesday, visited the rebel-held areas of northwest Syria that were devastated by last month’s earthquake, an AFP reporter reported.
Tedros, the highest-ranking United Nations official to visit Syria’s rebel-held zone since the Feb. 6 quake, has traveled to government-held areas in Aleppo and Damascus in the weeks since the disaster.
He entered Syria on Wednesday from neighboring Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing and visited several hospitals and shelters for displaced people, journalists said.
After the quake, activists and emergency teams in the rebel-held northwest decried the UN’s slow response, contrasting it with the planeload of humanitarian aid sent to government-controlled airports.
A total of 258 planes loaded with aid have arrived in regime-controlled areas, 129 from the United Arab Emirates.
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths admitted on February 12 that the agency “has now failed people in northwest Syria”.
Since then, the UN has launched a $397 million appeal to help victims of the earthquake in Syria.
The United Nations said a total of 420 trucks loaded with UN aid had crossed into rebel-held pockets since the tragedy.
More than four million people live in areas outside government control in northern and northwestern Syria, 90 percent of whom depend on aid for survival.
The first UN aid convoy crossed into the area on February 9 – three days after the quake – and brought tents and other aid to the 5,000 expected before the quake.
– Crossing –
The UN generally sends relief to northwestern Syria via neighboring Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa crossing – the only way for aid to enter without Damascus’ permission.
The crossing is in the Idlib region, which is rarely visited by UN officials and is controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group.
The WHO chief said on February 12 that Assad had expressed openness to another border crossing for aid to be brought to earthquake victims in the rebel-held northwest.
On February 13, the United Nations said that Damascus had also allowed the use of two other crossings in areas outside its control – Bab al-Salama and Al-Rai – for three months.
An AFP reporter said a new aid convoy entered via Bab al-Salama on Wednesday.
The first UN delegation visited rebel-held northwest Syria after the earthquake crossed from Turkey on February 14.
These include the deputy regional humanitarian coordinators David Carden and Sanjana Quazi, who lead the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Turkey and mostly the assessment mission.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit war-torn Syria and Turkey killed more than 50,000 people in both countries.
The Syrian government says 1,414 people have been killed in areas under its control, while Turkish-backed officials in Syria have put the death toll in rebel-held areas at 4,537.