More than 200 humanitarian aid planes have landed in areas held by the Syrian government since the February 6 earthquake, nearly half of them from the United Arab Emirates, an official from the Ministry of Transport told AFP on Wednesday. .
Planes loaded with humanitarian aid from several countries have followed one another since the devastating earthquake which killed nearly 46,000 people in Syria and Turkey, reducing the diplomatic isolation of the Syrian government.
“
So far, 213 planes carrying earthquake aid have landed in Syria
,” said Suleiman Khalil, including 92 planes sent from Abu Dhabi, which established a real airlift.
European aid
On Wednesday, a plane from Norway landed in Damascus carrying 14 tonnes of Norwegian Red Cross aid.
"
Those affected are very vulnerable due to years of war and crisis
," said Joergen Haldorsen of the Norwegian Red Cross.
Two days after the quake, Damascus had requested relief assistance from the European Union and the European Commission had encouraged EU Member States to provide such assistance.
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At least 3,600 Syrians died in the earthquake that occurred nearly twelve years after the start of the civil war which left nearly half a million dead, ravaged infrastructure and displaced millions of people.
Even before the earthquake, the majority of the population needed humanitarian assistance.
Diplomatic isolation
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is diplomatically isolated, and Syria was expelled from the Arab League at the end of 2011. The United Arab Emirates is the first Gulf Arab country to restore relations with Damascus in 2018. On Tuesday, the minister Emirati Health, Abdelrahmane al-Oweis, was visiting the disaster areas of the Syrian coast.
He said he wanted "
a united position on a global scale to face this enormous humanitarian challenge
".
Several other Arab countries have outlined an opening towards Damascus after the earthquake.
