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Syria
A 31-tonne medical shipment arrives at Damascus International Airport on June 12, 2020. Photo: WHO Syria
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The World Health Organization (WHO) said late Thursday that a three-batch, 85-tonne medical aid shipment is on its way to northeast Syria, an area known to Kurds as Rojava. Both a WHO and Rojava administration official told Rudaw English the aid is set to arrive in the coming days.
The last, 31-tonne batch of aid consisting of "emergency medical supplies" arrived in Damascus on Friday evening, WHO's office in Syria announced via Twitter.
On Thursday, two other WHO batches arrived in quick succession in Damascus via Erbil International Airport. The second batch "will reach the north-east Syria secondary level health facilities,” the organisation tweeted.
The 85-tonne delivery includes aid for "trauma patients, cholera and treatment of other health conditions," WHO representative to Syria Akjemal Magtyamova told Rudaw English on Friday, and will be sent "mainly to hospitals."
It is hoped the aid will arrive in northeast Syria “by next week,” to be distributed both to facilities controlled by the Rojava authorities and by the Syrian regime, Magtyamova said.
The three-batch delivery eclipses the 55 tonnes of medical aid provided to the region over the whole of 2020, Rojava health board co-chair Jwan Mustafa told Rudaw English on Friday. WHO sent 20 tonnes of medical aid in mid-April and 35 other tonnes less than a month ago, he said.
“The new aid is expected to arrive in the coming days,” Mustafa told Rudaw English.
Rojava used to receive international aid through al-Yarubiya border crossing with Iraq, but was left out of a January 2020 UN Security Council vote to allow the passage of humanitarian provisions into Syria due to Russian opposition.
Coupled with a dramatic drop in the value of Syrian pound, the closure of the border crossing has made purchasing medicine inaccessibly costly for northeast Syria's residents, particularly the chronically ill.
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