BEIRUT: An aid convoy on Saturday reached a camp for displaced Syrians near the Jordanian border, the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent said, in the first such delivery since January.
"The UN and SARC are delivering humanitarian assistance to 50,000 people in need at Rukban camp in southeast Syria," the UN said in a statement, adding the delivery was expected to take three to four days.
The convoy included much-needed food, as well as health assistance, the UN and SARC said.
"We are delivering food, sanitation and hygiene supplies, nutrition and health assistance in addition to other core relief items," the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali Al-Zaatari said in a statement.
"We are also conducting an emergency vaccination campaign to protect some 10,000 children against measles, polio and other deadly diseases."
More than 70 trucks would ferry in more than 10,000 food parcels and bags of flour, as well as clothes for 18,000 children, the Red Crescent said.
The aid would also include newborn baby kits for 1,200 children, medicines, medical supplies and nutritional supplements for children and women, it said.
It was the first aid convoy to arrive in Rukban from Damascus, after the last delivery from Jordan in January.
"This is SARC's first convoy to Rukban camp after guarantees from all parties have been obtained," SARC president Khaled Hboubati also said in a statement.
Conditions since the last aid arrived have deteriorated, with most inhabitants unable to afford what little food is smuggled across the Jordanian border, and no health facilities in the camp.
Abu Karim, a camp resident, welcomed the fresh assistance but insisted it should be regular to have a lasting effect.
"The aid arriving has provided some relief to the displaced, but if it then stops and does not continue on a regular basis, the camp will return to its bad state," he said.
He pointed to the lack of healthcare for the displaced as winter draws close.
"The aid entering will solve the food crisis in the camp, but there's still the health issue," he told AFP via a messaging app.
"There's great suffering as we have no doctors, hospitals or even field hospitals or a place for first aid."
To access a basic clinic, residents have to cross into Jordan - through a border that has been largely closed since 2016.
Last month, a girl of four months died of blood poisoning and dehydration, and a five-day-old boy lost his life to blood poisoning and severe malnutrition, according to the UN's children agency UNICEF.
A suicide bombing claimed by Daesh in June 2016 killed seven Jordanian soldiers in no-man's-land close to the nearby Rukban crossing.
Soon afterwards, the army declared Jordan's desert regions that stretch northeast to Syria and east to Iraq "closed military zones".
The kingdom, part of the US-led coalition fighting Daesh, has allowed several humanitarian aid deliveries to the area following UN requests, but the borders remain largely closed.
The camp, home to displaced people from across Syria, also lies close to the Al-Tanf base used by the US-led coalition fighting Daesh.
Syria's civil war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.
First aid since January reaches displaced Syrians near Jordan border: UN
First aid since January reaches displaced Syrians near Jordan border: UN
Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village threatened after record rains
- The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status
SIDI BOU SAID, Tunisia: Perched on a hill overlooking Carthage, Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Said now faces the threat of landslides, after record rainfall tore through parts of its slopes.
Last week, Tunisia saw its heaviest downpour in more than 70 years. The storm killed at least five people, with others still missing.
Narrow streets of this village north of Tunis — famed for its pink bougainvillea and studded wooden doors — were cut off by fallen trees, rocks and thick clay. Even more worryingly for residents, parts of the hillside have broken loose.
“The situation is delicate” and “requires urgent intervention,” Mounir Riabi, the regional director of civil defense in Tunis, recently told AFP.
“Some homes are threatened by imminent danger,” he said.
Authorities have banned heavy vehicles from driving into the village and ordered some businesses and institutions to close, such as the Ennejma Ezzahra museum.
- Scared -
Fifty-year-old Maya, who did not give her full name, said she was forced to leave her century-old family villa after the storm.
“Everything happened very fast,” she recalled. “I was with my mother and, suddenly, extremely violent torrents poured down.”
“I saw a mass of mud rushing toward the house, then the electricity cut off. I was really scared.”
Her Moorish-style villa sustained significant damage.
One worker on site, Said Ben Farhat, said waterlogged earth sliding from the hillside destroyed part of a kitchen wall.
“Another rainstorm and it will be a catastrophe,” he said.
Shop owners said the ban on heavy vehicles was another blow to their businesses, as they usually rely on tourist buses to bring in traffic.
When President Kais Saied visited the village on Wednesday, vendors were heard shouting: “We want to work.”
One trader, Mohamed Fedi, told AFP afterwards there were “no more customers.”
“We have closed shop,” he said, adding that the shops provide a livelihood to some 200 families.
- Highly unstable -
Beyond its famous architecture, the village also bears historical and spiritual significance.
The village was named after a 12th-century Sufi saint, Abu Said Al-Baji, who had established a religious center there. His shrine still sits atop the hill.
The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status.
Experts say solutions to help preserve Sidi Bou Said could include restricting new development, building more retaining walls and improving drainage to prevent runoff from accumulating.
Chokri Yaich, a geologist speaking to Tunisian radio Mosaique FM, said climate change has made protecting the hill increasingly urgent, warning of more storms like last week’s.
The hill’s clay-rich soil loses up to two thirds of its cohesion when saturated with water, making it highly unstable, Yaich explained.
He also pointed to marine erosion and the growing weight of urbanization, saying that construction had increased by about 40 percent over the past three decades.
For now, authorities have yet to announce a protection plan, leaving home and shop owners anxious, as the weather remains unpredictable.
