Doctors Without Borders shipment of medical and non-medical equipment from Dubai hub to Syria. Dubai, February 2023. © Ahmad Amer/MSF
We emptied our emergency stocks in three days, donating nearly 12 tons (4,000 cubic meters) of surgical equipment, dressing and medicines to hospitals. Our teams provided support to the health facilities in the area until they were exhausted. But we did not see any help from the outside. Aid is trickling in in negligible amounts for the moment.Hakim Khaldi, Head of Mission in Syria
Doctors Without Borders shipment of medical and non-medical equipment from Dubai hub to Syria. Dubai, February 2023. © Ahmad Amer/MSF
Enormous unmet needs in northwestern Syria
Our teams identified enormous unmet needs in terms of relief. Access to accommodation and decent hygiene conditions are far from being granted, especially as the 180,000 people newly displaced by the 6th February earthquake add to the two-million people displaced by 12 years of war and already living in precarious conditions.
Doctors Without Borders is currently providing relief and medical support to the people living in five reception centers in Northern Idlib (a mobile team provides health care and we distributed tents, water, bread, blankets, mattresses and fire extinguishers). Activities aimed at ensuring the continuity of access to health care for both victims of the earthquake and the general population are starting next week.
Humanitarian aid provided to the region through the cross-border mechanism has not even matched its pre-earthquake average volume yet. According to UN data, 5 days after the earthquake, only 10 trucks had entered Syria through Bab al-Hawa, a UN-coordinated border crossing point for humanitarian aid from neighbouring Türkiye.
14 Doctors Without Borders trucks loaded with tents and winter kits are crossing to North West Syria, from Hamam crossing point in Türkiye. Turkiye, February 2023. © Abdulmonam Eassa/MSF
As of 17 February, a total of 178 trucks loaded with aid provided by six UN agencies had crossed into northwest Syria through Bab Al-Hawa and Bab Al-Salama since the earthquakes eleven days before. In 2022, 7,566 trucks loaded with aid crossed from Türkiye into northwest Syria, which represents an average of 227 trucks for the same period of 11 days.
Furthermore, part of the 178 trucks that reached Northwest Syria were not part of the earthquake response but rather already-planned deliveries. Even considering 3 days of border closure, the current volume of trucks is barely matching the humanitarian response before the disaster.
Calls for urgent scaling up of humanitarian supplies
The border crossing of the Doctors Without Borders convoy was possible thanks to the support of Al Ameen, a Syrian NGO partnering with Doctors Without Borders. The delivery was arranged outside of the United Nations cross-border humanitarian mechanism coordinated by the WHO, which does not cover logistical equipment.
Doctors Without Borders calls for the immediate scaling up of the assistance for the people affected by the earthquake in northwest Syria, in order to address the new humanitarian needs adding to those already prevailing in the area. In particular, priority should be given to supplying shelters and water and sanitation equipment, as well as the medical supplies necessary for post-operative care and to maintain continuity of care, amongst other items which are urgently needed.
