Aid groups urge UN to keep Syria's Bab Al-Hawa lifeline open another year

Humanitarian groups have urged UN Security Council members to vote to keep the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing open for another year so that vital aid can make its way to opposition-held northwest Syria.

Groups including the International Rescue Committee (IRC) made the call ahead of a UN Security Council vote on a resolution to extend cross-border aid to Syria. A six-month extension on the mechanism that keeps Bab Al-Hawa open is set to expire on Monday.

"The cross-border mechanism authorised by the UN Security Council serves as the backbone of the humanitarian response in northwest Syria. Without it, the consequences will be dire," Tanya Evans, the IRC’s Country Director in Syria said in a statement from the group released Thursday.

"We are unequivocal in our plea for the UN Security Council to reauthorise cross-border assistance for at least another 12 months and at a scale that is in line with the needs. Anything less would signal to Syrians that the Council is willing to accept unnecessary suffering and loss of life."

The Security Council initially authorised aid deliveries in 2014 into opposition-held areas of Syria from Iraq, Jordan and two points in Turkey but Russia and China have whittled that down to just the Bab Al-Hawa crossing in the north.

All 15-members of the Security Council need to vote to approve keeping the Bab Al-Hawa crossing open as the Syrian regime did not agree to the UN operation to deliver aid to opposition-controlled areas of Syria.

More than 4 million people in the northwest Syria area are in need of humanitarian assistance, aid groups and diplomats have said. Almost 2 million of them live in camps or self-settled sites in dire conditions, according to the IRC.

The humanitarian situation in the area was made worse by the 6 February earthquake that devastated parts of southern Turkey and northern Syria. The quake destroyed some vital infrastructure, including health facilities, and sparked a fresh wave of displacement.

Since the earthquake, some supplies have made its to the area thanks to the opening of two additional crossing points to northwest Syria from Turkey, for an initial three months and then extended by another three months.

But these emergency-driven responses do not allow for stable or secure access to aid, and prevent the provision of supplies for longer-term humanitarian projects in the war-stricken area, humanitarian groups have said.

"A 12-month resolution on aid access for this essential route would ensure that the humanitarian community can plan to meet needs effectively. Not only to meet acute, life-saving needs of the 2.7 million people relying on assistance via Bab al-Hawa every month, but to support markets, create jobs and livelihood opportunities, and ensure that children and their families can reduce their reliance on humanitarian aid and build resilient, dignified lives," Save The Children quoted Kathryn Achilles, their Syria Advocacy, Media and Communications Director as saying.

Diplomats and UN aid chief Martin Griffiths have urged for the cross-border mechanism to be renewed in the run up to the vote.