Aid resumes to Syrian refugees on Jordan border

The United Nations has resumed aid deliveries to over 85,000 Syrian refugees facing freezing conditions in a desert camp on Syria’s border with Jordan.

UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac said Friday that the UN children's agency has delivered over 250 "winterization kits" including sweaters, trousers, jackets, socks and boots for children under 12 months old since a UN announcement Tuesday that deliveries were resuming.

Aside from water deliveries, UN aid to the makeshift Rukban camp between two parallel earthen barriers, or berms, all but stopped after Jordan sealed the border following a June car bomb attack that killed seven Jordanian border guard members.

This has left thousands of Syrians stuck between a war zone and a sealed border, without regular access to food, water and medicine.

Conditions have become increasingly dire, with aid officials reporting the spread of disease, including whooping cough and hepatitis.

Before the border closure, aid was sent from Jordanian soil. In August, Jordan permitted an aid drop by crane, in what was described at the time as a one-off shipment.

Jordan has said the international community needs to take responsibility for those stranded at the berm, and that the kingdom has already done more than its share in taking in Syrian refugees. 

In the past, Jordan has argued that this aid needs to come from Syrian territory, not Jordan.

UNICEF says children make up over half of the population in the camp, and 20 percent are under 5 years old.

Close to 5 million Syrians fled civil war in their country since 2011, including nearly 660,000 who settled in Jordan.