AMMAN: A medical charity on Tuesday deplored the UN’s failure to renew a cross-border mechanism that allowed international aid to reach rebel-held northwestern Syria from Turkiye and demanded an urgent solution.
“The resolution expired a month ago and there is no solution currently in sight. This is simply deplorable,” said Sebastien Gay, head of mission for Doctors Without Border (MSF) in Syria.
The UN Security Council’s inability to renew “a resolution safeguarding access to vital humanitarian aid for northwestern Syria is inexcusable,” the aid group said.
More than four million people live in rebel-held areas of northern and northwestern Syria, many of them in overcrowded camps, where they are in desperate need of aid.
Through an arrangement that began in 2014, the UN delivered relief to the areas directly through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing from Turkiye.
But last month, the UN Security Council failed to reach consensus on extending the key aid route.
Russia vetoed a nine-month extension then failed to muster enough votes to adopt a six-month extension.
“Humanitarian aid has been used as a tool in a political dispute and struggling people in northwestern Syria will pay the price for this failure,” Gay said.
The Syrian government has said it will allow humanitarian aid to pass through the crossing for another six months but set conditions the UN called “unacceptable.”
Following a February 6 earthquake that struck both Turkiye and Syria, Damascus agreed to temporarily open two other crossings on the border until August 13.
But several international organizations have expressed concern that allowing Damascus control over the flow of aid to rebel-held areas could limit access to those most in need.
“The bottom line is that the needs of over four million people have been overlooked, as political negotiations were priorities,” Gay added.
“MSF urges the member countries of the UN Security Council to find a solution with the utmost urgency that guarantees impartial, non-politicized and sustainable humanitarian access.”
Civil war broke out in Syria after President Bashar Assad’s government crushed peaceful protests in 2011.
The conflict has killed nearly half a million people and driven half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.
Medical charity slams UN failure to renew Syria aid route
https://arab.news/wvx3f
Medical charity slams UN failure to renew Syria aid route
- More than four million people live in rebel-held areas of northern and northwestern Syria where they are in desperate need of aid
Two Tunisia columnists handed over three years in prison
- Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies have already been in detention for almost two years
- They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering
TUNIS: Two prominent Tunisian columnists were sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in prison each for money laundering and tax evasion, according to a relative and local media.
The two men, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, have already been in detention for almost two years for statements considered critical of President Kais Saied’s government, made on radio, television programs and social media.
They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
“Three and a half years for Mourad and Borhen,” Zeghidi’s sister, Meriem Zeghidi Adda, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Since Saied’s power grab, which granted him sweeping powers on July 25, 2021, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Dozens of opposition figures and civil society activists are being prosecuted under a presidential decree officially aimed at combatting “fake news” but subject to a very broad interpretation denounced by human rights defenders.
Others, including opposition leaders, have been sentenced to heavy prison terms in a mega-trial of “conspiracy against state security.”
In 2025, Tunisia fell 11 places in media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 118th to 129th out of 180 countries.
