The disaster within the disaster – that’s why Syrian earthquake relief is so heavy Gunfire at a university in the US state of Michigan – at least three dead

Khaled Hboubati of the Syrian Red Crescent* is seen in a red vest at a media conference at a table and speaks urgently into the sea of ​​microphones piling up before him:

That was on February 7, a day after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. How is the aid in Syria a week after the disaster? And do the sanctions actually hinder aid?

The failed multinational state

The sanctions Hboubati is talking about are a result of the civil war that has plagued Syrians since 2011. And now the violence of war prevents acute emergency aid for earthquake victims.

The Syrian civil war unleashed a massive humanitarian catastrophe even before the earthquake. According to UN estimates, more than 350,000 civilians have been killed and 6.5 million have fled. Emmanuel Massart of the NGO Doctors Without Borders, which has been active in northern Syria for a decade, told Watson:

And many of these Displaced people have sought shelter in areas now razed to the ground by the quake.

The civil war parties in the earthquake zone

In the course of the civil war, the modern state of Syria has broken up into regions that are too Government of President Bashal al-Assad and his foreign allies, the Kurdish People’s Defense Units, rebels or Islamist groups to be checked.

That Areas hit by the earthquake are controlled by different warring factions – the hardest hit areas by the opposition. And this is one Problem for acute emergency responseneeded after the earthquakes.

According to Massart, the continuing insecurity and access restrictions severely limit the possibilities to provide humanitarian aid. Providing relief supplies and caring for and transporting patients in critical condition is currently a priority.

After the earthquake, food, water, kitchen sets, medicines, blankets, temporary housing, but also excavators are needed. Massart emphasizes that the aftermath of the earthquake called for “a high level of local and international support”.

The disaster within the disaster

So far, Assad has called on states and organizations to send aid to Syria only through Damascus. From there, the goods would be distributed in a centralized manner. In the eyes of the regime, this action is intended to emphasize that Syria’s sovereignty is recognized by the international community.

In practice, however, aid to the Northwest has for years been routed from neighboring Turkey across the border at Bab El Hawa, a process that requires UN Security Council approval every six months. And in the UN Security Council, Russia – which is affiliated with Damascus – has a right of veto. The Security Council is currently debating whether to open further border crossings so that emergency aid can reach those affected after the earthquake.

Massart confirms these terms to Watson. He explains that transporting relief supplies and medicines from Turkey to Syria has always been a challenge over the past decade. “The only border crossing point for humanitarian convoys into northwestern Syria was subject to political tension even before the disaster.” In addition, the humanitarian teams never had access to all people:

As a result of the earthquake, MSF has formally offered support to the Syrian government, but has not yet received a response. That is why the organization can currently only offer help where it has been present for years with about 500 employees. “We didn’t have to negotiate access to the region for our medical activities,” says Massart.

The few post-earthquake efforts to deliver humanitarian aid through the internal front lines to the earthquake-affected areas have so far been an extremely dangerous endeavor, Reuters writes. For example, a convoy from the Kurdish-occupied northeast that should have been moving to the northwest – in an area held by Turkish-backed rebel groups – was embroiled in several battles. All parties then accused each other of politicizing aid.

A UN spokesman said on Sunday that aid crossing the front lines was held up by “permission issues”.

The Doctors Without Borders team in northern Syria consists of about 500 employees. There it supports hospitals, health centers and clinics in displaced persons camps. The organization also provides ambulance vehicles. In addition, the team is working on water and hygiene supplies and nutrition programmes.

Sanctions and humanitarian aid

The civil war was initially sparked by peaceful protests during the Arab Spring, to which Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad responded with brutal violence.

Western states almost immediately imposed harsh economic sanctions on Syria after Assad took action against his own people. In Europe and Switzerland, the sanctions are regulated as an EU regulation, in the US in the form of a presidential decree. The American sanctions are somewhat stricter than the European ones.

Essentially, the sanctions should regulate five points:

At first glance, none of these items contain humanitarian aid. But the Red Cross has repeatedly complained that the Sanctions were sometimes applied too harshly would. Like would machinery classified as dual-use items and therefore stopped. In addition, aid organizations should cooperate with authorities, the German Cordula Dröge of the legal department of the Red Cross (IKRK) explains to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. It’s a problem if you get into trouble with the EU or the US for that.

Nevertheless, Dröge stressed that the ICRC is not demanding a general lifting of sanctions.

The US has now temporarily eased its sanctions against Syria to speed up aid deliveries: sanctions will be suspended for 180 days for “all transactions related to earthquake relief assumptions”.

This is likely to make it easier to get urgently needed goods and machinery into the country.

However, BBC analysts put into perspective that this approach is mainly intended to reassure banks and other institutions that they will not be penalized if they want to offer help. A relaxation of the sanctions does not regulate where aid arrives in the country.

Meanwhile, reality on the ground continues to write tragic stories. “Some survivors have lost everything: their homes, their clothes, access to food, their money, sometimes part of their family – everything,” Massart concludes.

* The Syrian Arab Red Crescent is a private non-governmental organization based in Damascus. She is a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.