REPORT: Aid officials call for swift cross-border access in Syria

United Nations and independent aid officials called on Saturday for swift agreement to allow supplies from Turkey into northeastern Syria, a move that would mark a small step towards implementing a U.N. demand for cross-border humanitarian access.   

More than 9 million people inside Syria are in need of aid - close to half the population still in the country - according to the United Nations, but many of them are separated from the main aid operation center in the capital Damascus.   

The U.N. Security Council unanimously demanded last month that Syrian authorities and rebels promptly allow access for humanitarian supplies across front lines and borders so that aid reaches affected areas by the most direct routes.   

Aid workers and officials say President Bashar al-Assad's government has proposed letting supplies cross into the Kurdish city of Qamishli through Turkey's Nusaybin border post.   

"The Syrian government has agreed to open the crossing there. There are still arrangements being worked out with the Turkish government," said Anthony Lake, executive director of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.   

"All of us have convoys ready to go and we urge that they work out those arrangements as quickly as possible," he told a joint news conference in Beirut alongside the heads of four other aid agencies working on Syria's humanitarian crisis.   

They were visiting Lebanon to mark the third anniversary of a conflict which has killed more than 140,000 people, driven 2.5 million to seek refuge abroad and displaced a total of 9 million; the highest number in any current conflict worldwide.   

Syria's offer to allow aid into Qamishli poses a dilemma for Turkey, as it would open the border into an area of Syria largely controlled by fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.   

It also fails to provide direct access to the rebel-held areas of northern Syria most devastated by the civil war, which are further to the west in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.   

Save the Children chief executive Justin Forsyth said the Feb. 22 United Nations resolution had not curbed Syria's suffering and many sides in the conflict were failing to meet their obligations set out in the U.N. text.   

Meanwhile, Syrian soldiers entered eastern districts of the town of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border north of Damascus, and advanced towards the main street, Al Mayadeen television said.   

The Beirut-based station broadcast footage showing soldiers charging through a field towards an arched entrance of the town and a sign saying "Welcome to Yabroud".   

Gunfire could be heard as the soldiers advanced.   

Thousands of people fled Yabroud, a town of an estimated 40,000-50,000 people roughly 60 km (40 miles) north of Damascus, and the surrounding areas after it was bombed and shelled last month ahead of the assault.       

More than 140,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled abroad as refugees in an increasingly sectarian civil which began with mass street protests against Assad in March 2011 but turned into an armed insurgency after a crackdown on demonstrators.

REUTERS


To watch Remy Derbass' report, please click on the VIDEO above