Commission: UN, Syria gov't failed to deliver timely aid after quake

Chairperson of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Pinheiro, said the United Nations, the Syrian regime, and other actors are responsible for delays in getting emergency aid to Syrians after last month’s deadly earthquakes, describing the failures as “shocking” and calling for a separate investigation, Reuters reported.

The allegations add to a growing chorus of criticism of the global body for its role in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake that killed some 6,000 people in Syria, mostly in the opposition-held northwest near the Turkish border.

“Though there were many acts of heroism amid the suffering, we also witnessed a wholesale failure by the Government and the international community, including the United Nations, to rapidly direct life-saving support to Syrians in the most dire need,” said Pinheir.

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The parties involved have also failed to agree on an immediate suspension in hostilities in northwest Syria and to allow life-saving aid through any available route.

“Syrians for good reason felt abandoned and neglected by those who were supposed to protect them in the most desperate of their times” he added.

“The Syrian population has a right to the truth – why they received this treatment,” Pinheiro added at a later press conference.

Of the delays in UN aid, another member of the three-person commission, Hanny Megally, told Reuters: “You don’t wait for permission to act in an emergency and that was what was shocking for us.”

Even when aid did begin flowing, days after the 6 February quakes, he said it was a backlog of food and other supplies and not the bulldozers and cranes needed to lift the debris or the medical equipment that could have treated the crush injuries of the rescued.

Syria’s Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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A UN humanitarian office (OCHA) spokesperson said 720 trucks loaded with aid have so far arrived in northwest Syria using three border crossings. He confirmed that no heavy equipment was sent in, saying this was the type of aid that only national authorities can provide.

Syria’s government says humanitarian aid should go via territory under its control, although supplies to the northwest are allowed across the border from neighbouring Turkeiye under a UN Security Council agreement.

Last month’s earthquakes added to misery for people suffering from the consequences of 12 years of civil war, with more than four million people reliant on aid before it struck.

The independent commission was established to investigate violations by all parties to the conflict. Commission member Lynn Welchman also said on Monday that the body planned to follow-up on an Israeli air strike that knocked Aleppo airport out of service, forcing aid flights to be rerouted.

READ: UN says parties to Syria conflict prevented access to areas affected by earthquake