By Spencer Brooke Hayes
June 5, 2021–More than 3 million Syrian refugees may lose access to food, medical supplies and humanitarian aide next month when a UN Security Council resolution expires.
“It’s going to be a disaster if the Security Council resolution is not extended. We know that people are really going to suffer,” Mark Cutts, U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator, told Reuters in a recent news report. “In northwest Syria you have some of the most vulnerable people anywhere in the world.”
UN Security Council mandate 2533 gives humanitarian agencies the right to cross the Syrian-Turkish border to deliver aid. The resolution comes up for review in July. According to reporting by Reuters Tuvan Gumrukcu, Russia and China reduced humanitarian access to border crossings last year to just one location: at Bab al-Hawa.
The humanitarian aid consists of food, educational materials for students, nutritional assistance for both children and mothers, and medical treatments, a recent UN report says.
The aid is “a lifeline” for millions of refugees in north-west Syria, said Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Last year, Russia abstained from the vote on the renewal and suggested that the cross-border mechanism be phased out. The representative asserted that Russia supports a more centralized distribution through the Syrian government.
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