LONDON: Britain said on Wednesday it was issuing two new licenses to make it easier for aid agencies helping earthquake relief efforts to operate in Syria without breaching sanctions aimed at the government of President Bashar Assad and its backers.
The combined death toll in Turkiye and Syria from last week’s earthquake has climbed above 41,000, and millions are in need of humanitarian aid, with many survivors having been left homeless in near-freezing winter temperatures.
In Syria, relief efforts have been hampered by a civil war that has splintered the country and divided regional and global powers.
The British government said the temporary new licenses would “strengthen the timely and effective delivery of relief efforts by removing the need for individual license applications.”
“UK sanctions do not target humanitarian aid, food, or medical supplies, but we recognize that the current requirements for individual licencing are not always practical during a crisis response,” Minister of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell said in a statement.
The licenses provide broad protection to organizations to allow them to operate by authorizing activities which would have otherwise been prohibited.
Earlier Britain announced a further 25 million pounds ($30 million) of aid to help the earthquake recovery effort. ($1 = 0.8328 pounds)
UK makes it easier for aid agencies in Syria to avoid breaching sanctions
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UK makes it easier for aid agencies in Syria to avoid breaching sanctions
- The licenses provide broad protection to organizations to allow them to operate by authorizing activities which would have otherwise been prohibited
Berlin says plans to host Sudan aid conference
- The conference would be held around the anniversary of the2023 outbreak of the civil war in April
- Previous Sudan aid conferences were held in Paris in 2024 and London in 2025
BERLIN: Germany plans to host a Sudan aid conference in the spring to raise emergency relief funds for the war-torn country, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
Brutal fighting between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the country, with reports of atrocities, starvation and mass killings.
“Today, the world commemorates a sad date: 1,000 days of war in Sudan,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. “Far too many people continue to suffer and die there, victims of hunger, thirst, displacement and rape.”
The conference would be held around the anniversary of the 2023 outbreak of the civil war in April, the spokeswoman said.
Previous Sudan aid conferences were held in Paris in 2024 and London in 2025.
“The world’s largest humanitarian crisis has already driven millions of civilians into poverty and many tens of thousands to their deaths,” the spokeswoman said.
“Germany is doing everything in its power, both politically and in humanitarian terms, to help the people on the ground and to end the fighting.”
International calls for a ceasefire have so far failed to halt the fighting between Sudan’s army-aligned government and the RSF, which is descended from the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.
Both sides have faced war crimes accusations over the course of the conflict.
