War, earthquakes, now a risk of cholera – Syria is posing some serious challenges to the Red Cross

Gilles Carbonnier, vice president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke to Arab News on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai. (AN Photo/Mohamed Fawzy)
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Updated 16 February 2023
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War, earthquakes, now a risk of cholera – Syria is posing some serious challenges to the Red Cross

  • Concern voiced by some that Syria has not been able to count on the expected degree of support following the earthquakes
  • The Red Cross had already been monitoring northern Syria due to concerns of an outbreak late last year

DUBAI: After more than a decade of war, and a succession of devastating earthquakes just hours apart which killed thousands, Syrians are now facing yet another life-threatening crisis — this time an outbreak of cholera.

The Red Cross had already been monitoring northern Syria due to concerns of an outbreak late last year.

"We were concerned last December because of the cholera outbreak already in the north of Syria. And we have tried to maintain water provision systems up and running despite this erosion of this critical infrastructure. And because of poor water, we have a concern of a new outbreak," Gilles Carbonnier, vice president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Arab News on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai.

When the Feb. 6 quake ripped through the border area where Turkiye and Syria meet —  killing tens of thousands — further fears of another outbreak followed, Carbonnier said.

The decades-old water pumping system in the region was already fragile after years of neglect as the war developed, so when the earthquake struck, it was inevitable that the force would be too much for it to bear.

Moreover, over the war years Syria has seen a movement of its population; people have been displaced as different factions in the war continue to fight.

This constant movement has placed a further burden on both the water provision system and the wastewater treatment systems.

There has been concern voiced by some that Syria has not been able to count on the expected degree of support following the earthquakes.




Carbonnier said the Red Cross had used its neutral stance to negotiate with the UN to allow its workers into areas held by all sides in Syria. (AN Photo/Mohamed Fawzy)

But Carbonnier said the Red Cross had used its neutral stance to negotiate with various parties to allow its workers into areas held by all sides - rebels, regime and jihadists -  to enable its workforce to help.

The Red Cross gaining access to Syria’s worst-hit areas means that communities can now receive essential drugs, medicine and medical equipment, Carbonnier said, adding that some of the chemicals needed to purify water were also being allowed in.

Of course, in an area like Syria, the situation is not straightforward — there are not just two sides.

So gaining access to areas requires persistence and effort in often life-threatening situations.

The Red Cross is not affiliated to any political body, or country. It operates under a strict rule of neutrality, focusing on gaining the trust not only of the people it wants to help, but also the often hostile forces which are present where those people are living.

“Syria is exactly the same: We have always engaged in a confidential dialogue,” Carbonnier said.

“We are not an advocacy organization. Our role is not to speak out publicly. We have a role to deliver on the ground.”

A delegation of the Red Cross has spent the past week in Syria negotiating access to those hit by the quake.

Carbonnier added: “And today what we say is that humanitarian aid must not be politicized.”

He said that the humanitarian effort must be focused on helping those who need it, whoever and wherever they are.

He said: “It’s not known precisely how many people are trapped under the rubble in the vast quake zone — years of war in Syria have made it nearly impossible for there to be an accurate record of precisely how many people might be missing or dead.”

The problem is made worse by the internal displacement of millions who are constantly on the move as they flee the war.

But the Red Cross is attempting to offer some help, by aiding people who have lost contact with loved ones. There is no guarantee that these people will be found, or whether they will still be alive.

But, Carbonnier said, the knowledge of what has happened to a lost relative, while it may be upsetting, can provide some level of closure and an end to the heartbreak of simply not knowing.




Carbonnier said the requirements for help and relief in Syria were huge, and acknowledged the aid already dispatched by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as other Arab nations. (AN Photo/Mohamed Fawzy)

He said: “We have seen that for families, the worst that can happen is to spend years without any knowledge.

“Even if the news is the death of a loved one, it’s really much better to get this news as soon as possible to start the grieving period, rather than to spend years hoping.”

When pressed on how high the earthquake’s death toll may eventually turn out to be, Carbonnier would not guess, but said it would likely continue to grow, and added “the number keeps growing every day.”

He said the requirements for help and relief were huge, and acknowledged the aid already dispatched by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as other Arab nations, describing the reaction as a “global solidarity movement.”

He added: “We have a strong movement of generosity. And it is key that, you know, we are able then to deliver.”

He said the aid was essential as the Red Cross was working in Syria based on a “budget that we had foreseen for this year.”

He added: “We really need a budget extension.”


UN urges more support to speed up Syria refugee returns

Updated 4 sec ago
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UN urges more support to speed up Syria refugee returns

DAMASCUS: UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi has urged more international support for Syria to speed up reconstruction and enable further refugee returns after some 14 years of civil war.
“I am here also to really make an appeal to the international community to provide more help, more assistance to the Syrian government in this big challenge of recovery of the country,” Grandi told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of a visit to Damascus.
Syrians who had been displaced internally or fled abroad have begun gradually returning home since the December overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, whose brutal repression of peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 triggered war.
But the wide-scale destruction, including to basic infrastructure, remains a major barrier to returns.
Grandi said over two million people had returned to their areas of origin, including around 1.5 million internally displaced people, while some 600,000 others have come back from neighboring countries including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkiye.
“Two million of course is only a fraction of the very big number of Syrian refugees and displaced, but it is a very big figure,” he said.
According to UNHCR, some 13.5 million Syrians remain displaced internally or abroad.
Syria’s conflict displaced around half the pre-war population, with many internally displaced people seeking refuge in camps in the northwest.
Grandi said that after Assad’s toppling, the main obstacle to returns was “a lack of services, lack of housing, lack of work,” adding that his agency was working with Syrian authorities and governments in the region “to help people go back.”
He said he discussed the importance of the sustainability of returns with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, including ensuring “that people don’t move again because they don’t have a house or they don’t have a job or they don’t have electricity” or other services such as health.
Sustainable returns “can only happen if there is recovery, reconstruction in Syria, not just for the returnees, for all Syrians,” he said.
He added that he also discussed with Shaibani how to “encourage donors to give more resources for this sustainability.”
With the recent lifting of Western sanctions, the new Syrian authorities hope for international support to launch reconstruction, which the UN estimates could cost more than $400 billion.

Water levels plummet at drought-hit Iraqi reservoir

Updated 21 June 2025
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Water levels plummet at drought-hit Iraqi reservoir

  • Visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s

DUKAN: Water levels at Iraq’s vast Dukan Dam reservoir have plummeted as a result of dwindling rains and further damming upstream, hitting millions of inhabitants already impacted by drought with stricter water rationing.
Amid these conditions, visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s.
Dukan Lake has been left three quarters empty, with its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq explaining its reserves currently stand at around 1.6 billion cubic meters of water out of a possible seven billion.
That is “about 24 percent” of its capacity, the official said, adding that the level of water in the lake had not been so low in roughly 20 years.
Satellite imagery analyzed by AFP shows the lake’s surface area shrank by 56 percent between the end of May 2019, the last year it was completely full, and the beginning of June 2025.
Tawfeeq blamed climate change and a “shortage of rainfall” explaining that the timing of the rains had also become irregular.
Over the winter season, Tawfeeq said the Dukan region received 220 millimeters (8.7 inches) of rain, compared to a typical 600 millimeters.


Upstream damming of the Little Zab River, which flows through Iran and feeds Dukan, was a secondary cause of the falling water levels, Tawfeeq explained.
Also buffeted by drought, Iran has built dozens of structures on the river to increase its own water reserves.
Baghdad has criticized these kinds of dams, built both by Iran and neighboring Turkiye, accusing them of significantly restricting water flow into Iraq via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Iraq, and its 46 million inhabitants, have been intensely impacted by the effects of climate change, experiencing rising temperatures, year-on-year droughts and rampant desertification.
At the end of May, the country’s total water reserves were at their lowest level in 80 years.
On the slopes above Dukan lies the village of Sarsian, where Hussein Khader Sheikhah, 57, was planting a summer crop on a hectare of land.
The farmer said he hoped a short-term summer crop of the kind typically planted in the area for an autumn harvest — cucumbers, melons, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and beans — would help him offset some of the losses over the winter caused by drought.
In winter, in another area near the village, he planted 13 hectares mainly of wheat.
“The harvest failed because of the lack of rain,” he explained, adding that he lost an equivalent of almost $5,700 to the poor yield.
“I can’t make up for the loss of 13 hectares with just one hectare near the river,” he added.


The water shortage at Dukan has affected around four million people downstream in the neighboring Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk governorates, including their access to drinking water.
For more than a month, water treatment plants in Kirkuk have been trying to mitigate a sudden, 40 percent drop in the supplies reaching them, according to local water resource official Zaki Karim.
In a country ravaged by decades of conflict, with crumbling infrastructure and floundering public policies, residents already receive water intermittently.
The latest shortages are forcing even “stricter rationing” and more infrequent water distributions, Karim said.
In addition to going door-to-door to raise awareness about water waste, the authorities were also cracking down on illegal access to the water network.
In the province of roughly two million inhabitants, the aim is to minimize the impact on the provincial capital of Kirkuk.
“If some treatment plants experience supply difficulties, we will ensure that there are no total interruptions, so everyone can receive their share,” Karim said.


Israel military says hit Hezbollah site in south Lebanon

Updated 21 June 2025
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Israel military says hit Hezbollah site in south Lebanon

  • The military said the site was used by Hezbollah “to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Saturday its navy hit a Hezbollah “infrastructure site” near the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura, a day after Israel’s foreign minister warned the Lebanese armed group against entering the Iran-Israel war.
“Overnight, an Israeli Navy vessel struck a Hezbollah ‘Radwan Force’ terrorist infrastructure site in the area of Naqoura in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
The military said the site was used by Hezbollah “to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
In a separate statement on Saturday, the military said it had “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon the previous day, despite an ongoing ceasefire between both sides.
In a statement carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s health ministry said late on Friday that one person was killed in a “strike carried out by an Israeli enemy drone on a motorcycle” in the same south Lebanon village.
The November ceasefire aimed to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which sparked months of deadly hostilities by launching cross-border attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Lebanon’s army, which has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure as part of the truce, said earlier in June that the Israeli military’s ongoing violations and “refusal to cooperate” with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism “could prompt the (Lebanese) military to freeze cooperation” on site inspections.


Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

Updated 21 June 2025
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Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

  • Veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force
  • The Quds Force built up a network of Arab allies known as the Axis of Resistance

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom.

The veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, Katz said in a statement.

There was no confirmation from the IRGC.

The Quds Force built up a network of Arab allies known as the Axis of Resistance, establishing Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982 and supporting the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

But Iran-aligned network has suffered major blows over the last two years, as Israeli offensives since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel have weakened both the Palestinian group and Hezbollah.

Katz said Izadi financed and armed Hamas during the initial attacks, describing the commander’s killing as a “major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force.”

Izadi was sanctioned by the US and Britain over what they said were his ties to Hamas and Palestinian militant faction Islamic Jihad, which also took part in the October 7 attacks.


Iran’s FM arrives in Istanbul for Arab League meeting

Updated 21 June 2025
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Iran’s FM arrives in Istanbul for Arab League meeting

  • Around 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

ISTANBUL: Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, Tasnim news agency reported, for a meeting with Arab League diplomats to discuss Tehran’s escalating conflict with Israel.

Around 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as Israel and Iran continue to exchange missile strikes.

“The Foreign Minister arrived in Istanbul this morning to participate in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ meeting,” Tasnim reported.

It comes after Araghchi met with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Geneva on Friday.

“At this meeting, at the suggestion of Iran, the issue of the Zionist regime’s attack on our country will be specifically addressed,” said Iranian foreign Abbas Araghchi, according to the news agency.

Israel began its assault in the early hours of June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran in the worst-ever confrontation between the two arch-rivals.

Earlier on Friday, Araghchi said Tehran was ready to “consider diplomacy” again only if Israel’s “aggression is stopped.”

The Arab League ministers are expected to release a statement following their meeting, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu said.