The Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing between Turkey and Syria’s rebel-controlled Idlib Governorate is in a dire situation following the massive twin earthquakes that hit last week. Activist and aid worker Abdulkafi Alhamdo spoke exclusively to The Media Line’s Owen Holdaway from the crossing. [1] According to Alhamdo, the roads are open but no aid is getting through. Only one convoy of six vehicles carrying aid has managed to cross the border into northwest Syria since the first earthquake struck, and it has barely made a dent in the relief and search-and-rescue operations underway in Idlib.
Alhamdo, the project coordinator for I Still Rise, a local charity that runs various education and relief programs in Idlib, stated that no official aid came across the border between Idlib and Turkey in the first critical 48 to 72 hours. He describes the situation at the border as “chaos” and says, “We need aid, we need search-and-rescue teams, we need help.”
Give the gift of hope
We practice what we preach:
accurate, fearless journalism. But we can't do it alone.
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
Join us.
Support The Media Line. Save democracy.
Idlib is the last area not under control by the Assad government and is still regularly bombed by regime and Russian airstrikes. Many who have fled the conflict and the Assad regime have temporarily settled in Idlib and have little shelter from the bitter winter weather.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorize the opening of new cross-border humanitarian aid points between Turkey and Syria to deliver UN aid to earthquake victims. Guterres called for more crossings to be authorized, stating that some 4 million people living in the rebel-held areas of northwest Syria have been relying on humanitarian aid transported via the Bab al-Hawa crossing.