The first United Nations aid convoy arrives in northwest Syria, as the death toll continues to rise

The death toll in Syria from the devastating earthquake has surpassed 3,150 as the first United Nations aid convoy arrived in the country on Thursday.

A total of 3,162 people are now known to have been killed and more than 5,000 injured in the quake, according to Syrian state media and a rescue service operating in the opposition-held northwest.

On Thursday, the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, announced that the death toll in northwest Syria had risen to more than 1,900, and more than 2,950 had been injured.

The organizations said in a statement that the number is likely to rise significantly due to the presence of hundreds of families who are still under the rubble of destroyed buildings and homes.

She added that the teams are continuing search and rescue operations amid very difficult conditions, about 75 hours after the violent earthquake that struck the area.

The White Helmets also said that the number of completely collapsed buildings in northwestern Syria has risen to 418 and more than 1,300 partially collapsed, in addition to thousands of other buildings that have created cracks.

Meanwhile, the state news agency, SANA, reported that the Ministry of Health reported more than 1,262 deaths and 2,285 injuries in regime-controlled areas.

The Minister of Health of the Syrian regime, Hassan Al-Ghobash, said that ambulances and medical personnel have been working tirelessly for more than 55 hours to reach every affected person, remove them from the rubble, and transfer the wounded to hospitals for treatment.

“Despite strenuous efforts, rescue teams were still able to find and rescue survivors trapped under the rubble until Wednesday,” he said.

It was difficult at first to reach the affected areas, and the number of casualties is increasing as recovery work progresses.

UN aid arrives

The first United Nations convoy carrying humanitarian aid entered Syria on Thursday at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.

The convoy consists of six trucks carrying relief items such as tents and hygiene products, according to UN sources.

This aid will help some of the most vulnerable people affected by Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 14,000 people in southeastern Turkey.

“The first United Nations aid convoy entered today,” said Mazen Alloush, the media official at the crossing.

Alloush noted that the handover was expected before Monday’s earthquake, but said, “It can be seen as an initial response from the United Nations, and it should be followed, as promised, with larger convoys to help our people.”

The mechanism for delivering aid from Turkey into opposition-held Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing is the only way UN aid can reach civilians without going through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

A UN spokesperson said earlier Tuesday that while the crossing itself was not affected by the quake, the road leading to it was damaged, temporarily disrupting operations.

UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen said Thursday that the emergency response in Syria must be “depoliticized” in the aftermath of “one of the most catastrophic earthquakes the region has seen in nearly a century.”

He told reporters in Geneva that the United Nations “today received assurances that we will be able to get the first aid today.”

Planes carrying aid from the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran and other countries have landed since Monday at airports controlled by the Syrian government in Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia.

No new shipments of humanitarian aid have been sent to the rebel-held northwest from inside Syria in about three weeks, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Syria, Mustafa Benlamleh, told AFP on Wednesday.

He said the UN had some stocks in the area – enough to feed 100,000 people for one week.

Speaking from Damascus, Benlamlih said the destruction in government-held provinces was “enormous”.

But we also know that the damage in the northwest is massive and we need to get there to assess it.”

Turkey will open more crossings

Earlier, a Turkish official confirmed that the Bab al-Hawa border crossing is open to humanitarian aid and that the authorities will open a few more crossings after two days if security is in order.

The United Nations has described access to opposition-held territory in Syria via Bab al-Hawa as a “lifeline” for the nearly 4 million people it says depend on humanitarian aid.

Most of the population has been displaced – sometimes multiple times – by the fighting in Syria. They suffer from additional factors such as malnutrition, cholera, cold winters and now, after the earthquakes.

UN aid from Turkey served 2.7 million people in northwest Syria per month last year, compared to the 43,500 people per month who have received aid from roads inside Syria since August 2021.

Bab al-Hawa is the only open crossing of what were originally four border crossings from Turkey into northern Syria.

Before the earthquake, the Syrian regime had wanted humanitarian aid to flow only through the areas of the country it controlled, with the aim of depriving the opposition in the north of additional resources.

This approach has raised concerns that the government may stop vital aid for earthquake victims from reaching opposition-held areas.

Activists previously reported that although no aid was brought into the area after the earthquake, the bodies of Syrians were flown in from Turkey through the border crossing instead.

Millions of Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The Border Authority published pictures of the minibuses, from which the body bags were transferred to other cars.

According to the Border Authority, more than 300 bodies of Syrians have arrived in Syria through Bab al-Hawa since Monday’s earthquake.