The United Nations announced the extension of humanitarian aid entry to northern Syria through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey for six months.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Thursday, July 11, that the Syrian regime informed them of its agreement to extend the entry of aid from the Bab al-Hawa crossing until January 13, 2025.
The UN Office added, “The extension is necessary for the UN’s cross-border operations, where we and our partners can deliver aid to more than a million people each month,” noting that “this is much less than previous years due to a lack of funding.”
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, stated that as humanitarian needs continue to increase, funding is decreasing. After more than half a year, the $4.1 billion humanitarian response plan for Syria for 2024 has only been funded at less than 20%, with $780 million received so far.
Abdelmoula pointed out that “emergency aid alone has proven unsustainable and must be complemented by early recovery programs to lift people out of poverty and achieve sustainable results.”
Since the beginning of this year until now, over 90% of the trucks carrying UN aid, and 70% of the missions carried out by UN staff, have used the Bab al-Hawa crossing to reach northwestern Syria.
While approximately 2,000 trucks carrying UN aid crossed from Turkey to northwestern Syria using the Bab al-Hawa, Bab al-Salama, and al-Rai border crossings over the past year, according to the United Nations.
Civilians in northwestern Syria had demanded the renewal of the mechanism for humanitarian aid entry through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, which ended on Thursday, July 11.
These appeals come at a time when northern Syria is witnessing an unprecedented rise in prices, amid a sharp decline in donor support since the beginning of this year.
The Syria Response Coordination Group (SRCG) reported that this year has witnessed a continuous decrease in the amount of humanitarian aid received across the borders, due to a significant decline in funding compared to previous years and a noticeable increase in humanitarian needs.
Earlier, relief and humanitarian organizations warned of the imminent end of the mandate for humanitarian aid entry to northwestern Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing and the danger this poses to millions of civilians in the area.
The agreement reached between the United Nations and the Syrian regime on August 6, 2023, allowed the Syrian regime to have the final say on the entry of humanitarian aid needed by Syrians outside regime-controlled areas, after the Russian veto thwarted the extension of the mechanism through the Security Council on July 10, 2023.