The International Rescue Committee called on the UN Security Council to extend the mandate for cross-border aid for a period of 12 months, to ensure that no lives are lost.
The committee said in a statement that the “Bab Al-Hawa” border crossing with Turkey is the last humanitarian channel for UN aid, on which 2.4 million Syrians depend every month, including 800,000 living in camps, while the total number is estimated at about four million people who need humanitarian support.
The committee’s director in Syria, Tanya Evans, said that the humanitarian situation this year is worse than ever before, noting that fuel and food prices are rising dramatically beyond people’s ability to bear them.
Evans pointed out that the reduction in funding for humanitarian actors, in addition to the onset of winter, the outbreak of cholera and the economic crisis, will be a “deadly combination” in the event of the closure of the only remaining lifeline for the northwestern regions of Syria.
Evans added that chronic fuel shortages, high inflation and the economic crisis have left poverty-stricken families without any alternatives during the winter, especially camp residents, who do not even have access to heating, electricity or clean water.
