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UN trucks at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing
Photo: Omar Al-Bam / REUTERS
The earthquake victims in north-west Syria urgently need international help – a first United Nations convoy has now arrived there.
According to the UN, six trucks with relief supplies left Turkey and passed through the only open border crossing, Bab al-Hawa.
Bab al-Hawa is the only open border crossing from Turkey to northern Syria, originally four.
Trucks have not been able to reach Bab al-Hawa due to damage to roads.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the roads have now been partially repaired.
In the civil war country Syria, access to and help for the earthquake victims are difficult, partly because areas in the north of the country are controlled by different sides.
After more than a decade of fighting and air raids, many residential areas, hospitals and other facilities were destroyed before the earthquake.
A lack of equipment makes salvage work difficult
The Bab al-Hawa border crossing is a lifeline for around 4.5 million people in areas in the north-west of the country not controlled by the Syrian authorities.
According to the United Nations, 90 percent of the population there were already dependent on humanitarian aid before the disaster.
In addition, there is a lack of equipment in Syria to rescue people who have been buried.
"We're missing the essentials.
We need big cranes to remove large chunks of (debris),” said Munir Mustafa, deputy head of the White Helmets rescue organization, according to the dpa news agency.
“We use our hands and shovels to clear the debris.
Some of us have not slept more than six hours in the last 70 hours,” said Ubadah Sikra of the White Helmets.
»The world has given up on us as always«
Many relatives of victims who are still buried are increasingly desperate.
'What can I say.
The world has given up on us as always.
We've lost everything," a resident of the small town of Djindiris told the dpa news agency in a shaky voice on the phone.
Around 20 members of his family are still buried.
'We heard their voices from under the rubble the first day, but then they slowly died down.
The situation is hopeless.«
Even before the earthquake, the Syrian rulers wanted humanitarian aid to flow completely through the areas they controlled in order to deprive the rebels in the north of further resources.
Now she's asking for it again.
With aid deliveries and payments to the government, there were repeated reports that the government enriched itself and used the goods as a means of power in the civil war.
Activists had previously reported that although no aid was being transported after the earthquake, the bodies of Syrians from Turkey were being transported through the border crossing instead.
Millions of people who fled Syria live in Turkey.
After the devastating earthquakes, the death toll in Turkey and Syria has now risen to more than 17,000.
There are now 14,014 dead in Turkey alone, said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
More than 63,000 people were injured.
At least 3,200 deaths were recently reported from Syria.
kko/dpa