Local humanitarian organizations in northwest Syria warned Monday of “catastrophic consequences” resulting from the closure of Bab al-Hawa crossing on the border with Türkiye, which allows access for medical assistance to millions of citizens, including 2.5 million displaced persons.
The Syria Response Team, an organization concerned with monitoring the humanitarian situation in NW Syria, warned in a statement that some 2.2 million people will be affected from the closure of the humanitarian lifeline that secures food provided by the World Food Program.
Other organizations and around 2.65 million people will be deprived of clean or drinking water, it added.
The Syria Response Team said this catastrophe looms as the mandate of UN Resolution 2642 approaches an end while international agencies insist to legitimize the entry of humanitarian aid through crossings of the Syrian regime.
Last month, local and international humanitarian organizations have called on the UN Security Council to renew and extend the Syria cross-border resolution 2642 for at least 12 months to allow humanitarian aid into northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
The resolution will be put to a vote on January 10.
The Syria Response Team warned Monday that the closure of Bab al-Hawa crossing will interrupt bread support in more than 725 camps, and deprive more than a million people from obtaining bread on a daily basis.
At the medical level, the Team said that “stopping the entry of aid across the borders will reduce the number of hospitals and effective medical facilities to less than half in the first stage, and more than 80 percent will be closed in the second stage.”
It noted that starting 2023, eight medical facilities have already seen reduced or no aid while less than 20 percent of facilities in the camp are receiving medical support.
Also, humanitarian organizations are unable to provide support to repair damages within the camps, the Team said, noting also the increase in the birth rate, and the arrival of new displaced people.
Meanwhile, medical authorities in NW Syria spoke of a new crisis with the interruption of support for dozens of hospitals and medical facilities, and the near depletion of operational materials in a number of other hospitals that provide multiple medical services to more than two million civilians, most of whom are displaced people residing in camps.
The medical authorities said a number of hospitals already stopped providing medical services to civilians suffering from heart, respiratory and orthopedic diseases starting the first day of 2023. They named the Atma Charitable Hospital, HIH Hospital for Children, Armanaz Hospital, and Al-Quds Hospital north of Idlib.
Ahmed al-Hassan, director of Syria's Al Khair camp, which houses about 800 displaced families north of Idlib, said “a horrible catastrophe may affect millions of people residing in the area, unless the mechanism for entering international humanitarian aid is renewed as soon as possible.”
He also spoke about a possible famine among the displaced, and the spread of epidemics and diseases.
More than 2.5 million displaced people from different regions of Syria are unemployed and have no source of income to survive, al-Hassan said.
He stressed that most of the displaced families in the camps depend on the monthly baskets provided by international partner organizations of the UN and WPF.
