War, Pandemic, and now earthquake Making the situation in northern Syria untenable. Don’t add international isolation to the mix.
Last week, as I surveyed the devastating effects of the massive twin earthquakes in northwestern Syria, I was struck with an eerie déjà vu. Buildings collapsed to the ground, entire communities were devastated, and tens of thousands of first responders and volunteers were hunting in the mountains. Hands searching for debris, desperately looking for signs of life.
with 30 times more powerful Like the Hiroshima bomb, the damage from twin quakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria is dizzying. Tens of thousands have died, and the number is expected to grow exponentially.
Crisis after crisis hits Syrians
But as the co-founder of a humanitarian nonprofit working on the ground in war-torn Syria for the past decade, I have sadly seen this year after year. Air strikes thanks to a brutal rogue regime and its powerful allies.
For this force majeure to occur here will only exacerbate humanitarian unrest, crisis after crisis. Syrians are still reeling from a series of pounding repercussions, including direct airstrikes on health facilities, critical water and power grids, civilian housing and infrastructure. Eastern Ukraine today – Least prepared to deal with earthquakes.
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How to help:Relief efforts underway after worst earthquake in years
The already sparse and overcrowded medical facilities consist of recent structures that have been desperately built despite the escalating fighting.
Sadly, the earthquake left four hospitals in northwestern Syria unusable. The remaining hospitals cannot keep up with earthquake victims and other overwhelming demands.
The novel coronavirus pandemic enough to prove Medical infrastructure in northwestern Syria was inadequate. The earthquake only amplified that fact.
Not only aftershocks but also the Assad regime fear
The reality in northwestern Syria today is not only that millions fear further aftershocks and possibly another magnitude quake, Assad regime attack and its allies.
An immediate and comprehensive humanitarian intervention plan needs to be developed at the highest levels of international cooperation to curb the further deterioration of what is already one of the greatest humanitarian crises on the planet.
My family spent 11 years in camp:I know firsthand how international aid does not help refugees. Here’s how to fix this:
review:Effects of the Syrian Civil War
Some might say that Syrians whose homes have been destroyed have experienced destruction before and adapt more easily than others.However, in reality, many refugees Syrians homeless againthey have a hard time finding anything hopeful.
As the Assad regime’s jets bombed civilians and killed millions, the international community abandoned them when they needed help most. The United Nations hid behind a shroud of international humanitarian law and diplomatic norms to justify their slow response to the unfolding catastrophe.
The cross-border humanitarian aid delivery mechanism was extended last month, but the amount and type of aid is limited.that It took three days after the earthquake for the first delivery of six freight trucks. It is full of humanitarian aid that can be delivered.
UN must stand up to Assad
Although regime-held areas were severely affected, the Assad government’s UN representative failed to submit a request for aid, demanding that aid to opposition-held areas must go through Damascus.they just recently admitted UN Negotiations for 3-Month Reprieve in North – A full week after the earthquake.
Technically, President Bashar Assad’s regime has zero presence in the north, and its position is irrelevant, but the United Nations needs such theoretical concessions. It refers to war crimes against its own people.
The Syrian people being held hostage by an openly brutal regime, not only at the United Nations, and its allies in the Security Council and other forums of diplomatic relations, are among the most shameful wounds of complacency, inaction. It may be handed down as one. And even responsible for the modern record of the international security order.
Saving people from the rubble of collapsed buildings is a priority for now. Obstacles to full, fluid and long-term aid must be addressed immediately and decisively.
The dire situation facing Syria today cannot be separated from the regime’s decade-long fratricide. We have a responsibility to ensure that denouncing the previous air raids does not erode attention to the Syrian people, but that they are treated as human beings and that others who suffer natural or man-made disasters are treated as human beings. We have a responsibility to ensure that we are treated with the same dignity that we are treated.
If the United Nations continues to normalize the Assad regime and its representatives around the world as legitimate diplomats and even colleagues, while at the same time claiming the mantle of humanitarianism, I am not a humanitarian.
i’m just a human
Ghassan Hitto is co-founder and chairman of the Syrian Forum and a former business and civic leader in the Dallas area.