A recent analysis by the Syria Response Coordinators (SRC) has shown that the Assad regime has acquired 64% of all earthquake relief designated for the victims of the recent earthquakes in Syria. This is despite the fact that less than 15% of those impacted by the quakes reside in areas under Assad’s control.
The SRC cites the current mechanism of delivering aid to Assad as the reason for this disparity, noting that most aids were sent to Damascus, Aleppo, and Latakia airports, instead of via other routes like Turkey. The study showed the areas under Assad control received 66 cargo planes containing over 8,632 tons of aid, 324 shipments arrived via land and sea routes with more than 8,234 tons and over 4,588 tons of additional UN aid have arrived since the earthquake. The total humanitarian aid designated for earthquake victims that have reached the areas of the regime was 21,454 tons from the UN and 22 different countries.
This is contrasted by the aid which reached the hardest hit areas of the earthquake, the opposition-held areas in northern Syria, which were 196 trucks, part of UN convoys some of which comprised regular aid not part of earthquake relief efforts, containing 3,855 tons and 116 earthquake relief trucks from international organizations and donations containing 2,845 tons, totaling 6,700 tons of international aid at the time of the study’s publication.
Additionally, 302 trucks of local aid reached the stricken opposition areas, which held 5,354 tons of humanitarian relief donated mostly by the Arab tribes of eastern Syria. Including the domestic aid the total amount which reached northern Syria was 12,054 tons. The SRC team pointed out that what reached the areas of the Syrian regime constituted 64% of the total aid arriving in Syria, while northern Syria received only 36% of the aid, despite comprising over 80% of the affected areas.
