WFP chief criticises northwestern Syrian authorities for slowing quake aid

The head of the World Food
Programme (WFP) has pressured authorities in
northwestern Syria to stop blocking access to the area as it
seeks to help hundreds of thousands of people ravaged by
earthquakes.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, David Beasley said the Turkish and Syrian governments had been cooperating very well, but that its
operations were being hampered in northwestern Syria.

“The problems we are running into is the cross-line
operations into northwest Syria where the northwestern Syrian
authorities are not giving us the access we need,” Beasley told
Reuters.

“That is bottlenecking our operations. That has to get fixed
straight away.”

World Food Programme said last week it was running out of stocks in northwest Syria and called for more border crossings to be opened.

READ MORE: Aid trucks reach northwest Syria via Türkiye border after deadly quakes

Death toll soaring

More than 45,000 people have been killed in earthquakes that
struck Türkiye and Syria, and the toll is expected to soar with
some 264,000 apartments in Türkiye destroyed and many still
missing in the country’s worst disaster in modern history.

Beasley said the devastation on crucial infrastructure and
buildings would mean that survivors would need help for months
to come, but the WFP, which is providing hot meals and take-home
rations, would run out of money in about 60 days.

“Time is running out and we are running out of money. Our
operation is about $50 million a month for our earthquake
response alone so unless Europe wants a new wave of refugees, we
need get the support we need,” Beasley said.

In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil
war, the bulk of fatalities have been in the northwest.

The area is controlled by insurgents at war with forces
loyal to President Bashar al Assad which has complicated efforts
to get aid to people.

Thousands of Syrians who had sought refuge in Türkiye from
their civil war have returned to their homes in the war zone –
at least for now.

“I don’t know why they are blocking. Why play games at a time like this. I will call them out and will not be silent about this,” Beasley said, referring to the authorities in northwestern Syria. 

READ MORE: Earthquake displaces over 171,000 people in Syria: humanitarian group